What movies are you looking forward to?

[Jody Barsch*]

I'm so ready to get my 80's geek on, and I don't care who knows it!

http://www.transformersmovie.com/

I totally had transformers as a kid! And He-Man! (Is that how you write it?) I think I've read a little about this movie ... I think there are some good people in it. Too soon to say if I'm looking forward to it though.

I've probably written it before because I've been waiting so long, but I'm totally stoked for Marie Antoinette!!!
Movies I've seen recently are The Science of Sleep and Jesus Camp -- very different from each other, but I liked both of them.

Movies I'm looking forward to... Running with Scissors and the new Wes Anderson, plus the LA silent movie theater on Fairfax just reopened, so I'm looking forward to going to some of those (there's a special place in my heart for the Sheik).

[SanDeE*]

Borat
For Your Consideration
Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny

[emmie]

Marie Antoinette
Running with Scissors
Borat
The Prestige (hey, it has Christian Bale!)


I've recently seen The Science of Sleep and Half Nelson, and I can't recommend them enough. both were so great! I love living in a city that gets movies other than the blockbusters!

[Jody Barsch*]

I love living in a city that gets movies other than the blockbusters!

Here, here!

I keep making plans to see Half Nelson but I never quite make it -- your recommendation might make me try a bit harder.

[Jody Barsch*]

Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny

Really? Are they making a movie? That sounds so potentially awesome.

I'm out of the Borat loop (I think) -- what is it?

[Jody Barsch*]

I'm trying to remember ther ititle of a movie someone told me about when I was in college, I was thinking that someone here might be able to help me out.

I'm going to do my best to describe what I remember him talking about:
The film takes place in taxi cabs all over the world, I think in the course of one night, and it is filmed in many different languages...?

That's not much to go on. Thanks for your help though

[lance]

Looking forward to:

Dark Knight (Batman Begins Sequel)

The Hobbit (if it actually gets made, once Peter Jackson and New Line settle their dispute)

Star Trek XI (now under the helm of JJ Abrahms)

Mad Max IV: Fury Road (with no Mel Gibson)

-LanceMan

[Jody Barsch*]

Ethan Hawke's Hottest State (I'm so bummed because I'm really looking forward to seeing this, I remember reading the book when it was first published, and I really love the girl from Maria Full of Grace -- and it was playing tonight in the LA Film Festival (and Ethan's most likely sure to be there) but it was already sold out when I tried earlier this week to buy the tickets.

Julie Delpy's 2 Weeks in Paris (also at the festival -- I'm on standby...)

[Jody Barsch*]

Just saw The Darjeeling Limited. LOVED IT!!! I was worried after Life Aquatic, but this was everything I want from a Wes Anderson film (only with no Mark Mothersbaugh, and no affirmations)!! My friend and I just thoroughly enjoyed it; I believe he and I were both beaming. There was definitely some remnants of Dignon in Owen's performance, Jason Schwartzman - I just love him all the time, and I love that Adrien Brody has joined the Wes Anderson force.

I also just saw Lars and the Real Girl, which I've been looking forward to seeing since reading the article in the LA Times. I really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to Juno, because it looks awesome (and who doesn't want to see George Michael and Michael Bluth together in action again?). I'm also still waiting to see Chalk and Rocket Science.

THE BIG PICTURE | PATRICK GOLDSTEIN; Hit or miss? Yes; Two films in, Craig Gillespie learns of Hollywood extremes.; PATRICK GOLDSTEIN
Los Angeles Times 10-02-2007

THE BIG PICTURE | PATRICK GOLDSTEIN; Hit or miss? Yes; Two films in, Craig Gillespie learns of Hollywood extremes.
Byline: PATRICK GOLDSTEIN
Edition: HOME EDITION
Section: Calendar; Part E; Calendar Desk

Hollywood Cinderella stories are a little more complicated today than they used to be. Just ask Craig Gillespie. After spending years in obscurity making commercials for everyone from H&R Block to Holiday Inn Express, the 40-year-old filmmaker is suddenly a hot item, having directed "Lars and the Real Girl," a delightful romantic fable that comes out in limited release Oct. 12. It has already racked up glowing reviews, a standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival and raves for Ryan Gosling's sweetly seductive performance as Lars, a painfully shy office worker who falls for a life-size silicone doll he ordered on the Internet.

If anyone knows how fine the line is between having a movie go wonderfully right or horribly wrong, it would be Gillespie, a low- key Australian expatriate who jokes that the biggest leap when making the transition from ads to movies was shooting scenes that lasted three minutes instead of 30 seconds. "I never had three minutes to play with before," he said over lunch the other day. "In commercials, you never even have time to pan the camera."
So what's the horribly wrong part? Gillespie's real debut isn't "Lars and the Real Girl," but "Mr. Woodcock," the long-delayed Billy Bob Thornton clinker about a gym teacher from hell that opened to dismal reviews three weeks ago. Gillespie had left the project after several poor test screenings, replaced by David Dobkin (of "Wedding Crashers" fame), who shot several weeks of new, more broadly comic footage.

For some, the fact that Gillespie is batting only .500 as a new filmmaker may make him less of a wonder. But to me, it makes him an even more interesting story. Filmmaking is a complicated, often mystifying art in which even the most gifted artists find themselves soaring into the stratosphere one moment, spiraling down in flames the next.

Greg Mottola was in director's jail after being axed from 2003's "Duplex" when the film was in pre-production; today he's at the top of everyone's comedy director list, thanks to the runaway success of "Superbad." Now that Peter Jackson is a cinema god, it's easy to forget that after earning kudos for 1994's critically lauded "Heavenly Creatures," he had a disastrous flop the next time out with "The Frighteners."

What is it that makes one movie work and another fall flat with the same person at the helm? I wish I could say it's all in the script -- and I'm happy to heap praise on Nancy Oliver, the "Six Feet Under" writer who created "Lars' " strikingly original characters. But writers blow just as hot and cold as filmmakers.

Gillespie's experience is also different in the sense that his gem arrives almost immediately after his dud. When you think of Hollywood ups and downs, the progression is usually the other way around, from hero to zero, whether it's Paul Haggis going from winning an Oscar for 2004's "Crash" to having his TV drama "The Black Donnellys" abruptly canceled, or Oliver Hirschbiegel following up his masterful German drama "Downfall" with the widely panned Nicole Kidman thriller "The Invasion." One of the few young filmmakers to go directly from the outhouse to the penthouse was M. Night Shyamalan, who triumphed with "The Sixth Sense" a year after Miramax buried his 1998 feature "Wide Awake."

It would be easy to blame the failure of "Mr. Woodcock" on its studio, New Line Cinema, which has been on a cold streak lately. But New Line executives insist that they made it clear to Gillespie from the start that he was hired to make a mainstream comedy, not something with the acerbic tone of an Alexander Payne film.

Gillespie, who came to the United States in 1986 to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York, contends that he was straight with the studio from the start. "I really felt in my gut that the audience would respond to the dark humor, since it was the kind of humor I'd had success doing in my commercials," he says. "I liked the unforgivable or at least unapologetic quality of Billy Bob's character. Mr. Woodcock is a kind of politically incorrect character that we don't often see in today's culture."

But after spending 15 years in advertising, where filmmakers have a lot of people to please, Gillespie knew when to cut his losses. "It was really an eye-opener when we had our first test screening," he recalls. "I realized this is not what the audience wants. They loved the concept -- the gym teacher from hell is dating your mother -- but it was obvious the audience wanted a broader comedy, not the one I'd made. I appreciated the predicament New Line was in, so I stepped aside. It was very civilized -- there was no animosity or hard feelings."

The most striking difference between Gillespie's two films is that although "Mr. Woodcock" is wildly uneven, "Lars and the Real Girl" has a sure-footed consistency of tone and a big-hearted sense of how a community, rallying around a troubled soul, can help him triumph over adversity. Set in a small town in the upper Midwest, the film captures an American generosity of spirit rarely seen in movies today. Eccentric and endearing without a whiff of mawkish sentiment, "Lars" moved Variety to describe its tone as "like a Coen brothers riff on Garrison Keillor's 'Lake Wobegon' tales."

Knowing the film needed special handling, its producers took the script to Sidney Kimmel, whose company has helped finance films as varied as "United 93," "Talk to Me" and the upcoming "The Kite Runner." Kimmel's production chief, Bill Horberg, loved the story and was impressed by Gillespie's take on the story. "Craig was very respectful about the fragile tone of the movie," Horberg recalls. "He understood the emotion in the story -- that it has a big sense of community and idealism -- but he wanted to play it very real."

Horberg laughs. "It also helped that we both agreed that Ryan Gosling was the right actor for the part." Gosling read the script over a weekend and committed instantly. In the film, Gosling's character lives in a garage apartment in his brother and sister-in- law's backyard. When shooting began, Gosling moved in, sleeping there during the first weeks of filming.

"Ryan became Lars," Gillespie says. "He wants to live and breathe the person he plays. There were scenes where no one really knew what he would do or what would happen. Once he's in character, he's totally unpredictable."

Even though his best-known work was 30-second TV spots, Gillespie (and Oliver's script) attracted some formidable talent -- in addition to Gosling, the film's cast includes Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson. "I think the actors could see pretty quickly that I wasn't pushing them in the wrong direction," Gillespie says. "Every morning we spent a lot of time rehearsing before we'd start shooting, so there was a lot of time for everyone to throw out ideas. If you give actors room, it's pretty liberating for them."

Gillespie admits that he was a different, less controlling filmmaker on "Lars," having learned to loosen up. "I came onto 'Woodcock' thinking that, as a first-time director, I have to have all the answers," he explains. "I felt I had to be very opinionated about where every scene was going or it would be seen as a sign of weakness, which was probably a mistake."

On "Lars," he was more collaborative. "Filmmaking is not an individual sport," he says. "It's really crucial to trust your actors. As Woody Allen once said, 'The actors make all these great choices and the director ends up getting all the credit for it.' "

It will be a formidable challenge getting audiences to see "Lars." Like so many character-driven comedies of the 1970s, it has a free-spirited feel that doesn't lend itself to a typical Hollywood hard-sell marketing campaign. But this time, the audience is in Gillespie's corner. At one "Lars" test screening, a focus group member asked, "I liked the movie, but what do you call it -- a comedy or a drama? I can't tell."

"Right away, a guy across the room yelled back, 'It's called life,' " Gillespie recalls. "I couldn't have given a better answer myself. We were trying to do a movie that felt real."

[Jody Barsch*]

Here again

Fresh from the LA Film Festival, here are some movies I recommend:
The Cove, opens in limited release July 31 -- http://thecovemovie.com/

After The Storm -- So powerful (I totally cried) -- a documentary telling the story of a New Orleans youth production of the musical Once On This Island -- a means to revitalize the still-closed youth center, the community, and for the young cast to exercise their experiences in Katrina.
http://www.afterthestormfoundation.org/

(500) Days of Summer -- Described as a Rom.Com. Rebuttal or an Emotional Action Flick, I had a great time seeing this. http://www.foxsearchlight.com/500daysofsummer/

Paper Heart -- Not for everyone, but the audience had a blast, some very funny moments, and excellent use of puppetry and dioramas! http://www.paperheart-movie.com/

And my absolute favorite: Dear Lemon Lima -- I am seriously on the bandwagon for this one! LOVE LOVE LOVE this film! The director and writer was so cool, as were the cast members and crew members and producers who I was lucky enough to get to talk with a little bit. http://dearlemonlimamovie.com/

I saw some other good ones, but these are my top five.

[TomSpeed]

Looking forward to:

Dark Knight (Batman Begins Sequel)

The Hobbit (if it actually gets made, once Peter Jackson and New Line settle their dispute)

Star Trek XI (now under the helm of JJ Abrahms)

Mad Max IV: Fury Road (with no Mel Gibson)

-LanceMan

I saw the new Star Trek movie awhile back. It was very good. Some parts didn't make much sense. But I thought it was a good reboot of the series.

[Jody Barsch*]

I haven't seen it, but my trekker friend enjoyed the premise a lot. A friend of mine's husband is in a scene as an extra as they filmed at the budweiser brewery where he works -- they got their own little premier.

I am looking forward to Where the Wild Things Are -- if anything, it's a great trailer!! I love when trailers don't use dialogue -- Marie Antoinette had a few great ones, same with Harold and Maude (and so polite too, ending with 'Thank You'), also Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.

I finally saw Blindness -- really really good, but extremely traumatizing to watch. I had to keep pausing to see how much more longer the horror would continue. It might take me a little while to love Gael Garcia Bernal again. Whew, I can't think what else was this stressful to watch -- Requiem For a Dream for sure ... I still haven't read the book though - which has been on my shelf for years

[Tish]

the marc bolan story (2010)
the runaways or...neon angel (2010)
sex and the city 2 (2010)