Trailer Time: Shame

Shame from UK director Steve McQueen is about to be released through FoxSearchLight in a few months, and I can't be more excited. Particularly after the release of the second trailer, and it is tasty.

It isn't that much different from the first trailer which contains much of the same images and clips (considering all the talk about the amount of daring frontal nudity and sexuality, I'm surprised they've gathered THAT much preview-friendly material). But the second trailer features less dialogue, and is instead played to Carey Mulligan's character singing a rendition of "New York, New York." And it's pretty heart-breaking.

Review: Mean Streets (5/5*)



How have I never seen this before?

Review: La piel que habito (3.8/5*)

Pedro Almodovar is known for his uses of various genres within a single film. His latest film La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In) is no different, if not slightly less effective than his previous works.

In this case, Almodovar is up to the same old tricks but in less familiar territory - horror. It is horror without the gore and violence, but still quite disturbing. The film begins in the year 2012 in Toledo, a quiet town outside of Madrid. In a country house, Vera (Elena Anaya) is secretly held captive and watched over by the dutiful housemaid Marilia (Marisa Paredes) while surgeon Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) continues to conduct years-long research and procedures on Vera, in hopes of reconstructing a "perfect" human skin graft. Unusual though the set up may already be, things take a turn for the worst once Marilia receives an unexpected visit from her son Zeca who discovers Vera.

Things and Thangs, and Adorable Movie-geek babies

Yet another post filled with random links. I will actually get to writing things - I promise!!

Trailer Time: J. Edgar, The Swell Season, The Pig w/ the Froggy Tattoo

J. Edgar is the latest film from Clint Eastwood. He's not a personal favorite of mine; while deliberate and at a controlled pace, I can find his films to be sometimes painstakingly slow, overly serious, and damn despressing (honestly, I watched Million Dollar Baby with high hopes and end it wanting someone to pull the plug on me - not a way to win the Fave Film position in my heart). But I will admit that his films are almost always the work of someone who knows what he's doing. Here's his next entry for the upcoming award season.

J. Edgar trailer at Apple Trailers.

Listessessss: Sex and Harry Potter, Getting the girl, Industry secrets, Essential Directors, and Spectacular movies

Another post, another long list of lists and random hits. More originals to occur soon, I hope = /


The 5 Most depraved sex scenes implied by Harry Potter - I knew it! This really makes the HP series more twisted/better than that ridiculously hyper-sexualized Twilight

How to Get the Girl According to Movies. Seriously, "Have feet"??? Ariel was such an easy ho.

6 Things the Film Industry Doesn't Want You to Know About.

The 100 Essential Directors.

25 Spectacular Movies You (probably) Haven't Seen

Listessessss and things

It's been way too long, and I've compiled many a links to provide commentary on each. So I'm just blog-vomiting it all out there. Here we go.

Five beloved yet deeply disturbing coming of age films


The do's and dont's for picking a takeout night movie

Top 10 quietly important films

11 superhero dating profiles

Judy Garland in her own words

Speilberg's curriculum - the films Steven Speilberg thinks every would-be filmmaker needs to see


THR's 25 Best Film Schools

8 Pointless female characters in movies

10 most overused songs in movie history


Director to watch flowchart 

50 greatest sex scenes in cinema

10 most iconic images in film history

Trailer Time: Contagion, El Bulli, Dream House, Higher Ground, Drive

Stephen Soderberg's latest film Contagion is bound to hit me personally on two levels: It takes place in the backyard of the SF Bay Area, and I am such a contamination-OCD freak. Thus, this is my WORST NIGHTMARE. But this looks good.

Harry Potter Hits Keep On Comin'

 10 Favorite Non-Trio Moments from the Harry Potter series

GeekArt: Kill Bill, Vertigo, Fake Criterion, Final Image

A Kill Bill/Donkey Kong/Mario Bros mash-up tee design from TeeFury.

Concept art/poster for Vertigo. Green, vague, fading, and definitive of the film. Like the Madeline/Carlotta alternative to the original falling man poster.

Two blogs to keep in mind: First, Fake Criterions which creates and uploads redesigned covers of films not unlike that of oh-so fancy The Criterion Collection. While some of them are obvious mockeries of Criterion's attempts to arts-ify and emphasize the importance and seriousness of its films, others are actually designs I much prefer to see than the originals. Always interesting to check up on new additions.

And second: a compilation of final movie images from the blog (surprisingly called) The Final Image. Warning: spoilers may lay ahead for some films.

Listsssess: Beginnings, the Best of Miramax, and the Overlooked

 30 Classic Movie Openings. So many faves. Some of these openings don't even need the rest of the movies their part of. Thankfully most of them follow through after their effectively distinct introductions.

 The 15 Best of Miramax Films. Discovered gem from this list: Kids

10 Criminally Overlooked Movies. Personal absolute must-see's from the list: City Lights, The Best of Youth, Never Let Me Go, To Live

GeekArt: Harry Potter vs Star Wars; HP/G6 parody "Like It's Quidditch"

Less than 10 days until the US premiere of the last installment of the Harry Potter film series, so obviously the fan art, posters, memorabilia, vids, etc are coming outta the woodwork. I've got my midnight ticket, do you?

Video: Film Students Getting Punched

This is exactly how I feel with half of the experimental/art/student/new-media/hipster projects I've ever seen. Basically the kind of films I'd want to make, just to tell people off  : )

GeekArt: Typographic Posters, Alfred Street, and D'oh!Nuts

In this edition of GeekArt, here are some movie posters redone in typography, some using the letters from the titles themselves. The Karate Kid poster being one of my favorites. Simple but witty.

Real Life Version of Pixar's Up house

 

Yeah, that's right. A real life replica of the house from Up.  Here's the link for more pictures.

Everything Is A Remix: Kill Bill and the Mini-Doc Series

,

I love remixes, in just about all shapes and forms. In movies, videos, music, art and so on. There's a little documentary series online from Kirby Ferguson called Everything is a Remix, and according to him we all love remixes to the extent that it just about consumes our modern culture, particularly in films. The best part, is that most of us don't even know we're watching a remix.

50 Facts About Goodfellas

Shortlist.com has come up with a list of 50 Useless But Genius Facts About Goodfellas. As any cinephile knows, you're no fan without your encyclopedic knowledge of useless (but damn awesome) factoids. Here are a few of my favorite/new tidbits...

Trailer Time: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 50/50, and Beats, Rhymes, and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest

*Mara Rooney as Lisbet Salander in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Trailers here once again. It seems all I have time for is to re-post. But I swear I'll get to some original reviews/articles sometime soon. Anywho, somehow in the flux of pre-summer-action-sequel-grossout-comedy-eye-candy blockbuster galore there have been some trailers released for some really, really interesting films coming out (hence the back-to-back post of Trailer Time). Including probably the best cut trailer I've seen this year thus far, David Fincher's rendition of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...

Trailer Time: Page One, The Skin I Live In

*Pedro Almodóvar and Antonio Banderas on the set of The Skin I Live In

Literature, journalism and every other form of the printed word is at a crisis. The immediacy, ease, and convenience of the internet and the digital age proves to be such devastating competition that the the publishing and journalism worlds have been in a constant whirlwind of change to keep up with it. And even The New York Times is no different. Or so the documentary Page One shows....

Movie Geek Evolution

The Droid You Are Looking For has put out a chart defining The Six Stages of Movie Geek Evolution. And yeah, for as witty as it is in mocking the traits of the typical film-goer, its so humorously and painfully all true.

For me at least, I've definitely hit all 6 of these stages. But my one complaint with it is that the stages suggests defining borders between each stage, as if each new stage suggests a complete shedding of the preceding one. But I feel like a little bit of all of these types of cinephilia are part of my overall movie-watching experience. They aren't independent of each other, they complement each other. And I think/hope, that I'm the better for it.

GeekArt: Cyclops, Stay Puft, and X-Muppets

Here's a graphic tee from BustedTees. It's fashionable AND gives further reason to not support 3-D technology - it's racist. Check out a few more geeky artworks ahead.

'Arry Pottah's 1-4: Comix style

What else is there to say? This comic strip pretty much nails down and crams the major plot points in the first 4 parts of the series, in a creative and humorous style. Check out the rest here.

NYC and the movies

Crudely made though it may be, this little piece of artwork makes the film geek in me all giddy inside. With 91 movies that take place in New York depicted in one form or another, I like to play the game of "Name that Movie." There's also a numbered version that shows each film, but not what it is. But that's less fun. Here's what I got on my first shot.

Trailer Time: HP 7.5. Submarine, y señor Will Ferrel

Let's start of this edition of Trailer time with one that half the world and their mom have probably seen already: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, or as I like to call it, Harry Potter 7.5. As a long-time HP fan of the books and the movies (films 1 and 2 - I am NOT talking about you) I am both excited for and dreading the last entry in the beloved series. For what else can capture the hearts and minds of peoples all around the world for the good part of almost 15 years? (Twilight, I am NOT talking about you) That being said, 7.5 is looking just as grand and epic as we all hope it to be. Check it out after the jump

Don't cha know

Here's a preview of Julianne Moore following in Tina Fey's footsteps as Sarah Palin in HBO's upcoming film Game Change. It's being directed by Jay Roach, so the results could go either way. But this pic already is building up high expectations.

50 Docs and counting...

 According to Yahoo, these are the 50 Documentaries to Watch Before You Die. I've seen about 10 of them...I've got some work to do.

Mas ads - Credit cards, Propaganda, and the Future

It seems to me that there are 2 kings of the ad-making filmmakers' world - Wes Anderson and David Fincher. These 2 directors commercial-making veterans, with Fincher's pre-film career work with Propaganda Films, and Anderson being so prolific he's even starred in a few of his own ads. Anything from them is sure to be interesting work. As sure as almost any ad for the World Cup it seems as well. Check out them out after the jump.

Follow Up: 100 More Things I Love

As a follow up to that thedroidyourelookingfor article on 100 Things I Love About the Movies, here's another article from the same author called (surprise) 100 More Things I Love About the Movies.

I didn't do this earlier, but here are the ones I definitely share, AND with a few addendums:

Ads for Shorts, and Vice Versa

There are a lot of TV ads and commercials out there. Some of them good, great, horrible, or straight up weird. But most of them are more like product-driven short films. And they all were directed by somebody. Some of them go on to be renowned filmmakers, like Michel Gondry and David Fincher. But they also tend to make their careers and continue to return to the medium. It's a great, and relatively quick, way of getting the creative juices flowing. There's a lot of 'em out there, here some that are worth a view and some of my personal likes.

Jane Eyre and the 3 People that Indeed "Tranfix" You

*At the premiere: Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska, Cary Joji Fukunaga

The new Jane Eyre movie is one of many adaptions of a beloved book written in the 1800s. But the movie also beholds the talents of 3 up-and-coming stars - here's some background and what else to look forward to from each of these Hollywood newcomers that I'm really rooting for - hard.

RIP Cinematical.com - The Untimely, and Mishandled, Death of a Film Blog

 As of April 6, 2011, the 5 year old film blog known as cinematical.com has died.

Review: Jane Eyre (4/5*)

 I've seen a handful of Jane Austen/Bronte adaptions, some of my favorites being Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility and Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice. But none of them quite compare to the latest, in a long line of adaptations, of Jane Eyre

Movie Mix 'n Mash: 'Arry Pottah, Wheels, and 2010

*DJ and known remixer Mike Relm

Aside from Facebook and autotune, mashups and remixes are probably just as much as definable icons of this generation. Thanks to our technological age and blatant disregard for copyright laws, images and sounds from here, there, and everywhere can be edited in the hands of creative talents (with a lot of time on their hands) and turn them into something completely different than its original version. Here are a few recent favorites after the jump.

Trailer Time

I'm pumping out a lotta posts right now. Blame it on the exciting novelty of starting the blog. Repressed cinematic thoughts just being purged. Ignore that for now, and take a look at some really intriguing trailers out this week.

100 Things I Love....

 As my first real post, I thought it be fitting to include this little article from a not-so-little movie blog called The Droid You're Looking For. For anyone who's watched the first Star Wars movie (the first REAL Star Wars film that counted), you can tell from the title that this blog is a bit of the silly, fanboy variety. Various film blogs run the gamut from DIY film commentary and entertainment to paid/published serious criticism. But I'd like to argue (or at least hope) that they all stem from a similar, personal, deeply-rooted passion and love for the cinematic medium. Here's where this blog's refreshing post on the "100 Things I Love About The Movies" comes in.

First Take

Here it is, my first entry on my new, and much needed, film blog. It's mostly for personal purposes. More like a documentation/scrapbooking of all my film-related likes, loves, hates, and finds. Hopefully to include reviews/thoughts on films old and new, and re-posts of interesting tidbits, articles, pics and vids.

Yes, its mostly for me and my feeble memory saturated with info from my film classes. Yes, my title is somewhat 'witty' if not totally embarrassing (I say it waaay too much in real life I realize). Despite that, maybe someone else will find something interesting in this little hill of beans out of the big and crazy world of other film blogs ( Casablanca Spoiler*).

So here we go....