Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Joseph L. Mankiewicz: The Essential Iconoclast at the New York Film Festival

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Cleopatra.
Starting today, the New York Film Festival honors director Joseph L. Mankiewicz with a retrospective of 21 of his movies, including his strychnine-laced love letter to the theater, All About Eve.

"I wanted to do something from Hollywood that was very important to me," says Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones.  "But we need these retrospectives in general, they help you see new films in a different light.  Last year we did Jean-Luc Godard, and in a weird way Mankiewicz sort of talks to that series because Godard really loved his work."

The revivals are important on another level because they are the only opportunity in the Festival to see film projected.  The print for People Will Talk was struck from the original negative.  The Barefoot Contessa (screening October 6) was restored by The Film Foundation, and the Festival is showing a release print of Sleuth (October 6).

Known today primarily for Eve and for Cleopatra (October 13), a big-budget blockbuster that almost ruined Twentieth Century-Fox, at the height of his career Mankiewicz was one of the most honored artists in Hollywood.  But what many film fans don't realize is that his career stretches back to the silent era.

Mankiewicz was the younger brother of Herman J. Mankiewicz, who shared a writing Oscar for Citizen Kane.  In the late 1920s, on the cusp of the transition to sound, the elder Mankiewicz got his brother a job writing titles for the silent versions of films like The Virginian and The Man I Love

Mankiewicz graduated to writing screenplays at Paramount, tackling Westerns, Broadway adaptions, musicals, sports films, and comedies.  He moved from screenwriting to producing at MGM, taking charge of Joan Crawford's career and handling prestige projects like The Philadelphia Story and Woman of the Year.

Like his brother, he adopted a cynical attitude toward the industry, calling himself "the oldest whore on the beat."  But his work writing and producing gave him a grounding in every genre and format, as well as experience dealing with creative egos.

Mankiewicz's first film as a director was 1946's Dragonwyck (October 6), a Gothic mystery set in upstate New York during the Colonial era.  Originally planned for an ailing Ernst Lubitsch, the movie resembles a period film noir, a genre Mankiewicz would explore again in Somewhere in the Night (October 2).

"I am essentially a writer who directs," Mankiewicz wrote in a 1967 Life article.  It took time for his directorial style to emerge, but with two adaptations of novels—The Late George Apley (October 6) and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (October 3)—Mankiewicz began to find visual equivalents for his sparkling, nuanced dialogue, like a 360-degree pan around a dinner table in Apley

Mankiewicz's three best films came during an astonishing burst of creativity, starting with A Letter to Three Wives (October 7 and 10) in 1949.  Ostensibly a romantic whodunit, Three Wives is a dauntingly witty survey of upper-class life, shown in three troubled marriages.  The film debuts for Thelma Ritter and Paul Douglas, the movie also includes excellent performances from Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, and Kirk Douglas.  Mankiewicz won Oscars for Directing and Screenwriting.

All About Eve (October 1 and 2) arrived in 1950, again winning Mankiewicz Directing and Screenwriting Oscars.  Its quips and insults have become part of our culture, but as Jones points out, the movie itself bears repeated viewings.  "Like all great movies, you think you know it, but when you revisit it you see something that you haven't seen before," he says.
Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain in People Will Talk.

Released in 1951, People Will Talk (October 2) may be Mankiewicz's most personal film.  Based on a Curt Goetz play, it stars Cary Grant as a doctor and university professor whose unorthodox methods bring him before a disciplinary board.  It's a movie that is bursting with brilliant talk, idiosyncratic characters, and unexpected plot twists.  Mankiewicz offers spirited debates about abortion, euthanasia, model railroad trains, and choral music, all within a moving and romantic mainstream comedy.

Critics accused Mankiewicz of elitism, and his subsequent films could seem sour and impatient.  He called The Quiet American (October 8) "the very bad film I made during a very unhappy time in my life," even though Jean-Luc Godard named it the best picture of 1958.  (Graham Greene complained that Mankiewicz changed his novel's ending, writing that the resulting film was "laughable.")  The director also judged his Guys and Dolls (October 5), his second collaboration with Marlon Brando, a failure.

Even Mankiewicz's weaker movies are worth seeing, like Escape (October 14), a thriller starring Rex Harrison that Jones said was the most difficult print to track down. 

Jones also praised the archivists and Twentieth Century-Fox, especially Jim Gianopulos, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment, who waived print fees for the series.  "They really made the retrospective possible," he said.

Monday, September 29, 2014

‘The Equalizer’ testifies to the power of Denzel

The latest successful bow for a Denzel Washington feature proved, once again, the actor is one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. The Equalizer raked in $35 million this weekend, enjoying the fourth strongest opening ever for the month of September, behind Hotel Transylvania, Insidious Chapter 2 and Sweet Home Alabama. Washington’s faithful fans, 65 percent of whom were over the age of 30, were pleased with this latest offering from the popular, dependably entertaining action star: They awarded the film an A- CinemaScore grade. Their positive word-of-mouth should help buoy the film to a tally north of $100 million or so.

It was a close race for second place, but ultimately, The Maze Runner finished victorious. This most recent YA adaptation earned $17.5 million, bumping its 10-day total to a very nice $58 million. The film dipped 46 percent from last weekend, a hold that was nonetheless stronger than that which Divergent managed over the same period: Divergent dropped 53 percent its second weekend in theatres. Like The Equalizer, The Maze Runner should end its theatrical run with roughly $100 million to its name.

In third place, The Boxtrolls grossed $17.25 million. Although reviews for the animated kids’ film were not as positive as those for past Laika Animation offerings Coraline and ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls nonetheless opened the strongest of the three titles. (ParaNorman bowed to $14.1 million, while Coraline grossed $16.8 million over its opening weekend.) The Boxtrolls also enjoyed the strongest opening for a stop-motion animated movie since Tim Burton’s 2005 The Corpse Bride. Audiences were more or less pleased with the film, awarding it a B+ CinemaScore grade. Look for The Boxtrolls to total out to roughly $60 million.

Holdovers This Is Where I Leave You and Dolphin Tale 2 claimed the fourth and fifth-place slots, respectively. The film with a great cast but less than compelling plotline, Leave You, added an additional $7 million to a total that now stands at $22.6 million. Dolphin Tale 2’s current cume is $33.7 million, $4.8 million of which it earned this weekend.

Friday, September 26, 2014

‘The Equalizer’ likely to win by wide margin

Remarkably, each one of the 11 Denzel Washington films exhibited as a major release (bowing in over 1,800 theatres) over the past decade opened to $20 million or more. The popular star is one of Hollywood’s biggest draws, and there’s little evidence to suggest his latest, The Equalizer, will fall short of past successes.

The vigilante thriller co-starring Chloe Grace Moretz bows in 3,234 locations beginning today.  It’s squarely in the vein of previous Washington vehicles The Book of Eli and Man on Fire. More importantly, it sees the actor re-teaming with director Antoine Fuqua. The last time the two worked together, on 2001’s Training Day, Washington walked away with an Academy Award. Marketing surrounding the film has been strong and targeted; there’s been a push to reach fans of Eminem, for instance, as the rapper’s “Guts over Fear” plays during the film’s end credits. Fandango has the actioner out-selling Washington’s Safe House (which bowed to a little over $40 million) and Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen ($30.4 million). The Equalizer could well gross $30 million or more this weekend.

That leaves animated family offering The Boxtrolls and last week’s box-office champion, The Maze Runner, to duke it out for second place. The Boxtrolls is the latest release from Laika Animation, the studio behind the well-received Coraline and ParaNorman. Boxtrolls has been receiving mostly positive reviews (it’s 70 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), although it hasn’t been as warmly embraced as Coraline (90 percent fresh) and ParaNorman (87 percent fresh). It has been the subject of a strong marketing campaign; however, it remains to be seen whether audiences will respond favorably to the American Laika’s take on a British sensibility (the movie is set in Victorian England) and material, for all that the titular trolls look rather gruesome, that seems to be lighter than benchmarks Coraline and ParaNorman. Still, The Boxtrolls should match ParaNorman’s $14.1 million opening.

Assuming a drop of roughly 50 percent or so, The Maze Runner should also rake in returns in the mid-teens.

This weekend also sees the release of another faith-based film, The Song. Like The Identical, and as its title would suggest, the flick has a musical bent, focusing on a musician who finds redemption from his sinner ways via his faith in God. Hopefully, the film opens stronger than Identical, which grossed only $1.59 million from 2,000 theatres.

Finally, specialty British film Pride bows in six locations. Critics love the historical dramedy about gay-rights and labor activists working together in Thatcher-era England (it’s 92 percent fresh), a positive reception that should translate to solid art-house returns.

Revivals and Special Events at the 52nd New York Film Festival

Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America
Opening September 26, the 52nd edition of the New York Film Festival features its usual full slate of must-see titles.  But true movie fans will be just as excited by the revivals being screened at the Festival.  They run the gamut from a 30th anniversary celebration of This Is Spinal Tap to Oidhche Sheanchais, the first Irish talking film, and one thought to be lost for decades.

For New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones, the revivals are an opportunity to revisit familiar movies in new contexts.  "It's important to fit these retrospectives into the Festival," he said.  "The series allow you to look at new films in light of older films and older films in light of newer films."

The narrative strategies in Hiroshima Mon Amour (screening October 10) are just as startling today as when the movie was released in 1959.  But it has not been shown in theaters for almost twenty years.  The NYFF is screening a new 4K restoration from the Cineteca di Bologna, overseen by director Alain Resnais' longtime cinematographer Renato Berta.  (Resnais passed away in March at the age of 91.)

Director Sergio Leone meant Once Upon a Time in America (September 27) to be an homage to crime films, but his vision never reached theaters in the US intact.  Studio executives cut the movie from four hours to two, rearranging the plot and eliminating entire passages.  Material was added back in over the years, but the version screening at the NYFF includes material never seen here before.

"For years people talked about material that was missing," Jones said.  "It got to the point where we were starting to think that Louise Fletcher's scenes were lost, but it turns out that they still exist."
 
Jones also pointed out The Tales of Hoffmann (October 3), a 1951 movie directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.  "This was a restoration done with great love and care over a long period of time," he said.
From The King and the Mockingbird. Courtesy Rialto Pictures.

Bruce Goldstein, the founder of Rialto Pictures, is especially excited about The King and the Mockingbird (October 5), an animated film that was "thirty years in the making."  Directed by Paul Grimault and written by Grimault and Jacques Prévert from a Hans Christian Andersen story, the movie was originally released in 1953. 

But Grimault was unhappy with that version, and after obtaining the rights in 1967, spent another 12 years working back to the way he thought the movie should look.  Rialto's new translation and subtitles will give viewers a better sense of the film's satire and whimsy.

Two films by Robert Flaherty also deserve attention.  Released in 1926, Moana (September 30) is an extraordinary and intimate look at life on Samoa, at the time one of the more isolated islands in the South Pacific.  Along with his wife and children, Flaherty spent more than a year on Samoa, capturing images of indelible beauty.

Almost forty years later, Monica Flaherty returned to Samoa to add a soundtrack to her father's work.  She recorded the sounds of leaves rustling, waves lapping, of birds and wildlife.  She also had Samoans repeat lines of dialogue to match up with the actors on screen.

Archivist Bruce Posner worked from 35mm elements to restore Moana, syncing Monica Flaherty's soundtrack as well as ensuring the best possible quality for Robert Flaherty's cinematography.  Critic John Grierson coined the term "documentary" when reviewing Moana, but the movie is more than just an ethnographic record.  Flaherty was a singular artist, and Moana may be the best expression of his vision.

Flaherty traveled to Ireland in the early 1930s to make Man of Aran, a study of life on the beautiful but bleak islands in the Galway Bay.  During post-production for the movie he made Oidhche Sheanchais, or A Night of Storytelling, the first sound film in the Irish language.
Title frame from Oidhche Sheanchais. Harvard Film Archive.

It was commissioned by the Irish Free State to commemorate and preserve a vanishing cultural heritage.  The film was distributed to Irish theaters, but a fire in 1943 destroyed the only known copies. However, the Harvard College Library had purchased a copy in 1935, and this nitrate print resurfaced in 2012 during a cataloging update at the school's Houghton Library.

The short will be shown with Moana on September 30.

As Jones points out, this is not the only recent rediscovery.  Upstream, a 1927 backstage drama directed by John Ford, was found in a New Zealand archive after being thought lost.  Who knows how many other "lost" films are waiting to be discovered in libraries and archives?

Monday, September 22, 2014

‘The Maze Runner’ finishes first

It doesn’t look as if Hollywood will forgo churning out young adult adaptations anytime soon. The latest hit to enter the ranks of adolescent-targeted features is The Maze Runner, which opened stronger than expected. The flick raked in $32.5 million from 3,604 locations, earning back nearly the entirety of its $34 million budget over a single weekend. Twentieth Century Fox is certainly pleased with the film’s performance: The studio has already greenlit a sequel, The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials, which is slated for a September 18, 2015 release.

Thanks to its male protagonist and a marketing campaign that focused on Runner’s action sequences, the movie skewed more male (49 percent) than previous YA adaptations. The guys and their female counterparts awarded The Maze Runner a CinemaScore grade of an A-, which bodes well for the rest of the film’s time in theatres. If Runner’s hold does prove relatively secure, it could wind up with a total several million shy of $100 million.

As expected, A Walk Among the Tombstones took second place, although its second-string haul was less than predicted. The latest Liam Neeson crime vehicle grossed $13.1 million, or more than 50 percent less than the actor’s recent Non-Stop. The mostly older crowd (77 percent over 25) that did turn out for the film left feeling lukewarm – audiences awarded the movie a CinemaScore grade of a B-. With upcoming, stiff competition from The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington, Tombstones is poised to fade rather quickly. In total, it may wind up grossing around $40 million.

This Is Where I Leave You also failed to meet already modest expectations. The dramedy with a marquee cast only did $11.9 million worth of business for a third-place standing. The film, unsurprisingly, skewed older (86 percent over 25) and female (63 percent). Viewers deemed the feature worthy of a B+. Look for Leave You to tally out to a total in the $30 to $40 million range.

Fourth and fifth place went to last weekend’s No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. No Good Deed dropped 58 percent to earn $10.2 million, while Dolphin Tale 2 took a dip of 43 percent to rake in $9 million for the weekend.

Friday, September 19, 2014

‘The Maze Runner’ guns for first place

This weekend, we may finally see a break in the fog of doom-and-gloom surrounding the domestic box office these past several months. With The Maze Runner, A Walk Among the Tombstones and This is Where I Leave You, the industry should enjoy a return to healthier tallies.

Bowing at 3,604 locations, The Maze Runner is poised to claim the No. 1 spot. Yet another film based on a popular young-adult book series, the latest from 20th Century Fox is looking, like so many of its YA-adaptation predecessors, to follow in the footsteps of megahits The Hunger Games and Divergent. On the one hand, it does have the all-important built-in fan-base, those who are avid readers of the books. On the other, the recent spate of YA movies – and dystopian YA films at that – will likely make it that much more difficult for The Maze Runner to appeal to viewers unfamiliar with the novels, combating as it must a pervasive sense of genre fatigue. (Just look at the ill-fated and timed The Giver.) While it’s unlikely to match the high bows of Games and Divergent, The Maze Runner may nonetheless open in the mid-to-high $20 millions.

A Walk Among the Tombstones should clock in at No. 2, while This is Where I Leave You will likely take third place. Liam Neeson has built a successful action-star brand around himself, with such films as Taken, The Grey, and the recent Non-Stop. Tombstones seems a bit more dour than these titles, but the prospect of watching Neeson in take-charge and take-names-later mode should still lure a substantial crowd into theatres. Universal thinks their film has enough appeal to warrant a bow in the mid-to-high-teens.

This is Where I Leave You has an extraordinarily appealing cast, including Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, and the buzzy Adam Driver. Unfortunately, the film has received poor reviews, and its dramedy premise, that of estranged siblings returning to the family homestead for their father’s funeral, doesn’t seem all that novel or interesting. In all likelihood, Leave You will enjoy a solid opening, thanks to interest in its cast, but then fall rather quickly in the weeks ahead. Look for an opening in the low-to-mid-teens.

Monday, September 15, 2014

‘No Good Deed’ does solid business

Thriller No Good Deed clocked in at No. 1 this weekend, raking in $24.5 million from 2,175 locations. Its opening-weekend figure was a bit larger than expected; many pundits had pegged the film for a bow in the mid to high-teens. Chalk Deed’s neat success up to stars Taraji P. Henson and, most especially, Idris Elba. Sixty percent of the film’s viewers were female, and 59 percent were over the age of 30 – in other words, “The Wire” and Mandela actor’s target fan base. Interestingly (perhaps depressingly), No Good Deed is the first film to open over $20 million since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bowed to a much stronger $65 million a month ago.

In second place, Dolphin Tale 2 earned an O.K. $16.5 million. Though its opening-weekend gross was down 14 percent from that of its predecessor, unlike the first Dolphin Tale, D2 didn’t have 3D ticket sales to help boost returns. Taking this into account, the film’s debut haul is roughly on par with 2011’s Dolphin Tale. Audiences enjoyed their second outing with Winter the dolphin, awarding the movie an A CinemaScore grade. Lacking little family-friendly competition, Dolphin Tale 2 should hold well enough to tally out to $50 or $55 million by the end of its theatrical run.

Third, fourth and fifth places were each occupied by a familiar holdover: Guardians of the Galaxy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Let’s Be Cops, respectively. Galaxy officially crossed the $300 million mark on Saturday, the first film to do so since Frozen skated past the benchmark in January. The Marvel flick grossed a little over $8 million this weekend, while the Turtles raked in a little under $5 million and the Cops a little north of $4 million.

Specialty film The Drop rounded out the top 5 with a $4.2 million haul. That’s a strong beginning for the limited release set to expand this coming weekend, to roughly 1,000 theatres.

Finally, The Skeleton Twins, starring fan favorites Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, impressed with a $411,000 tally from 15 locations. The film’s $27,400 per-theatre average bodes well for its nationwide release September 26.

Toronto wrap-up

By: Erica Abeel

Among the many reality-based features at this year’s TIFF the major standout was Foxcatcher by Bennett Miller (soon to appear at the New York Film Festival).  Drawn from a sensational true crime story, this mesmerizing film (which won Best Director for Miller at Cannes) engages on so many levels, it practically reinvents the reality-based genre. Foxcatcher delves into the disturbing  story of wrestling champions Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo) and their fateful encounter with billionaire wrestling enthusiast John du Pont (Steve Carell, cast against type), heir to the vast chemical fortune. 

After taking home the gold at the 1984 Olympics, wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) leads a drab life of training routines and solitary evenings in his shabby digs surrounded by wrestling medals.  No endorsements for this champ.  Mark’s world opens up when he’s invited by megabucks John du Pont (Steve Carell) to join the US team preparing for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and train at Foxcatcher, Du Pont’s estate near Valley Forge.  Du Pont also wants Mark’s beloved brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo) on board as a trainer but Dave refuses to uproot his family.  

Mark moves to a sleek chalet on du Pont's sprawling estate, its rolling hills, polished interiors, and spanking new wrestling center forming a pointed contrast to his old  life. The only catch: Du Pont, who fancies himself a trainer, is a loon.  A point of no return is reached when he calls his protégé “an ungrateful ape” and never seeks to apologize.  After he coaxes Mark’s brother Dave into joining "Team Foxcatcher," the stage is set for disaster. 

The three men are each meticulously drawn.  Channing Tatum’s hunkiness serves him well; he looks brutalized and almost simian, with a forward thrust jaw and wrestler’s gait, pulling off the wrestling matches with authority.  He sits on inarticulate rage like a keg of dynamite ready to explode.  The main center of sympathy is Ruffalo as Dave, a family man and all round good guy who’s struggled to reach a rung in the middle class, props up his brother, and wants the best for everyone.      

But the film belongs to Steve Carell in a transformative turn as Du Pont, his every moment on screen racheting up a sense of dread.  The dead eyes and bloodless smile, along with peculiar pauses in his speech, suggest derangement held in check.  That he comes on like a father figure to Mark is beyond grotesque.  Du Pont is also an ornithologist – with his prosthetic beak he resembles an eagle sighting his prey – and self-styled patriot, who weirdly conflates Team Foxcatcher with America’s potential for greatness.  With acidic irony, Carell’s sicko is set against footage from promos made by the Du Pont family to celebrate its illustrious history.

Foxcatcher builds its ominous mood through deliberate pacing and stretched silences.  Scenes swathed in gray mist are shot from behind the looming black head of a statue; foxes look like jackals.  Miller brilliantly meshes social critique with a B horror movie.  So why didn’t the Schultz brothers spot Dupont’s craziness and run? Maybe, given their lack of social exposure, they just wrote it off as a rich man’s eccentricity.  Does Miller see Dupont’s villainous one-percenter as emblematic of his caste?  I don’t think the director wants to go there quite; that would be too on the nose.   Certainly, though, Foxcatcher is a cautionary tale about the dangers of limitless cash allied with arrogance and delusion.  

In The Riot Club, Lone Scherfig (An Education) mines viewers’ apparent fascination with the British upper crust, yet another hallmark of this fest.  Inspired by David Cameron’s real-life Bullingdon Club, Riot corrals a bevy of pretty lads who seem to do nothing at Oxford but pull rank, shoot, drive around drunk, and barf (shades of Brideshead Revisited).  Scherfig gives us a kind of posh porn; the cast she’s assembled could be the Brit version of Calvin Klein underwear models. 

An underdeveloped plot involves the recruitment into the club of newbie Miles (Max Irons), a monied but basically decent chap, who’s only too flattered to sign on.  His affair with a working class girl is doomed, no surprise, from the start.  The thuggish club members talk obnoxiously of “girls for now and girls for later” and let drop that after college “we’re going to be behind some very big desks.” 

Riot culminates in a set piece in which the lads hold a black-tie dinner in an inn, bond over their disgust for the poor, and trash the room.  The ringleader is sent down from Oxford but it’s clear he and his entitled cronies can get away with anything.  That Riot intends to indict these scions of the ruling class is to its credit.  But in Scherfig’s hands the execution is cartoonish and over the top, and betrays an outsider’s view.

99 Homes by Rahmin Barani also delivers a stinging social critique.  I admired this politically conscious filmmaker in the underrated At Any Price, which displays a compassion for the little guy struggling to survive in an America which does little to aid him.  Sadly, despite its superb cast, the impact of 99 Homes is blunted by an overly predictable plot.

Set amid the US housing-market meltdown of the last decade, 99 focuses on a family that has become one of the many casualties of a culture of relentless consumption and economic overextension.  With employment opportunities drying up after the US economy's implosion, construction worker Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) has fallen disastrously behind in his mortgage payments.  Evicted from the house by local realtor Rick Carver (Michael Shannon) — a slick, hard-nosed operator who has found a lucrative calling in these lean times as an axeman for the banks — Dennis finds temporary housing in a motel while he desperately scrambles to keep even this roof over his family's heads. All too predictably, Dennis gets roped into Carver’s shady operation as a construction worker, after Carver promises to help him reclaim his family home.  From that point, to the detriment of the film, you can all too easily connect the dots.

Garfield – another Brit playing, along with Tom Hardy, a blue collar American – has never been better as a decent soul struggling to deal in a world where the little guy’s loss is the big guy’s gain.  Michael Shannon digs deep to expose the visceral need to succeed underlying Carver's manic drive.  Though the two actors play brilliantly off each other, it’s not enough to save this film from its overly didactic premise.

Despite the grousing around Toronto about the lack of a “slam dunk” for the Awards, to my mind this year’s TIFF has been a banner fest.  And I have yet to see Noah Baumbach’s latest, the German Labyrinth of Lies just picked up by SPC, and Swedish winner Force Majeure.  Above all, perhaps, 2014 has been the year of reality-based films; the quality biopic with crossover appeal to a large public; and a year that raised the art of screen acting to new heights.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Week in review: 9/8 - 9/12

It was a good week for Reese Witherspoon: Two of her films screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (The Good Lie and Wild, or the movie for which many believe Witherspoon will be nominated for another Academy Award) and a passion-project successfully emerged from development limbo. The actress will next star in a Fox 2000 biopic of singer Peggy Lee, to be directed by Far From Heaven's Todd Haynes. The untitled film is based on a script by the late, greatly inimitable Nora Ephron, and re-written -- or fine-tuned, more like -- by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright. The involvement of Legally Blonde producer Marc Platt is yet more cause for excitement among Witherspoon/Ephron/Lee fans.

Another actor with a vehicle making inroads at TIFF, The HumblingAl Pacino was the subject of a lengthy New Yorker profile this week. The article is a terrific read for anyone interested in the process of one of The Greats, or his excuses, or justifications, or statements of plausible deniability in regards to charges of "overacting."

One would certainly appreciate a good hammy performance from George Clooney when he appears on British TV network ITV's "Downtown Abbey" movie this holiday season. How did the popular series manage such a high-profile get? By appealing to the actor's softer side: The film will air as part of an annual philanthropic campaign entitled "Text Santa," a fundraiser for six U.K. charities. No one yet knows which part Clooney will play, but while romantic love-interest for Lady Mary would seem the obvious choice, our hopes are pinned on a diverting entanglement for poor, shafted Lady Edith.

It seems the filmmakers behind Top Gun 2 are opting out of a campy take on the fighter-pilot story (so much the worse) and playing the movie straight instead: Justin Marks, best known for penning Disney's live-action version of The Jungle Book, has agreed to write the sequel's screenplay. Tom Cruise will reprise his role as pilot Maverick in the film that, per The Hollywood Reporter, "aims to show the relevance of good old fashioned pilots in today's high-tech, drone-centric war environment."

If it were to feature a villain of the caliber of The Spy Who Loved Me's baddie Jaws, played by the towering Richard Kiel, who passed away at 74 on Wednesday, we might be more inclined to voice our enthusiasm.

At any rate, by the time Top Gun 2 is released, will viewers have grown accustomed to buying tickets via Twitter? Will it prove the blockbuster for which Hollywood execs are pining? Surely, many must be feeling as if 2014 can't end soon enough: It looks as if not even predetermined hits The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies  will be able to pull the domestic box office from the fiscal depths into which it has descended this year.

But perhaps Zack Snyder's Batmobile (of which the below is the first official photo), and the implied superhero behind its wheel, will be able to move things along come 2016:


‘Dolphins’ and ‘Deed’ battle for No. 1

Still recovering from last weekend’s dismal returns, the film industry is readying for another slow several days. Dolphin Tale 2 and No Good Deed are the two releases hoping to claim the No. 1 spot at the domestic box office. Neither one, however, is expected to open over $20 million.

The first Dolphin Tale was a modest success, opening to just under $20 million three years ago. Overall, the family flick raked in a nice $72.3 million. Unfortunately, this year has been rough for sequels to popular kids’ films: Titles including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Rio 2, and How to Train Your Dragon 2 all opened softer than their predecessors. Additionally, returns for the first Dolphin movie were boosted by 3D pricing; Dolphin Tale 2, on the other hand, is not being released in 3D. Still, there remains a good chance Dolphin Tale 2 could surprise the pundits and break the 2014 Curse of the Kids’ Sequel – according to Fandango, the film is out-selling the first Dolphin Tale.

There remains an equally good chance No Good Deed lands at No. 1. Though the film is opening in 2,175 theatres to Tale’s 3,656, it boasts popular stars Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson in the leading roles. It also has producer Will Packer, who produced the 2009 Beyonce thriller Obsessed. Though it’s unlikely Deed will match the Beyonce-fan-fueled $28.6 million opening of Obsessed, it isn’t unreasonable to hope for a bow in the high teens.

The specialty division offers up The Drop this weekend, or the film that features the late James Gandolfini’s final performance. The well-reviewed crime flick also has the likeable Tom Hardy as its star; it may do as much as $2 million worth of business.

Both The Skeleton Twins and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby have likeable duos of their own: Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader in the former, and Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy in the latter. Twins bows in 15 theatres, while Rigby is opening much smaller, at just four locations beginning today.

Buzzy Brit actors and biopics

Call Toronto 2014 the year of the British actor.  Heading the list, of course, is Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, a biopic about Stephen Hawking.  Also mesmerizing is Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game.  My personal fave, though in a less flamboyant role, is Tom Hardy as a Brooklyn bartender in The Drop.  At moments he seems almost to be channeling Marlon Brando. 

And the actresses?  Sadly, they simply haven’t gotten the parts to strut their stuff in.  The exceptions include Felicity Jones and her lovely portrait of Jane Hawking, the physicist’s indomitable wife of 25 years.  And Juliette Binoche and Nina Hoss, who shine, respectively, in Clouds of Sils Maria and Phoenix.  I’ve not seen Coming Home by Zhang Yimou, China’s greatest filmmaker, but I gather that Gong Li is tremendous.

Also dominating the scene this year are biopics and films based on true stories. The crowd-pleasing potential – and consequent appeal to the money men – is obvious.  It happened!  It’s real!

In the face of all the hoopla and Oscar talk about Theory and Imitation, I should admit I’m not a great fan of the biopic as a genre.  I see it as basically a filmed memoir or illustrated biography.  And too many biopics tend to be by-the-numbers, with actors channeling their subject – which is, after all, an actor’s job – plus fancy time shifts, all of it finished off with nice camera work.

But Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything transcends – or pretty nearly – the limitations of the genre.  At TIFF, it’s buzzed that come Oscar time, Redmayne’s the one to beat, that he’s this year’s Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot

Stephen Hawking (Redmayne) and Jane (Felicity Jones) fall in love while students at Cambridge.  When Jane learns of his earth-shattering diagnosis, she says, “I want to be with you as long as I can and when it ends that’s just the way it is.” Who could resist that mix of English sensibleness and nobility?  As his body fails, Hawking pursues his ambitious study of the nature of time, Jane fending off medical doomsayers and protecting his ability to write groundbreaking books. 

Redmayne captures Hawking to an uncanny degree, including all the phases of his physical decline – the actor even looks like the young Hawking!  But this is no illness-of-the-week drama. It’s a moving portrait of a marriage. And a full marriage it is; the couple have three children – “different system,” Hawking replies with a twinkle, when asked how he managed. 

And it’s a celebration of the human spirit.  Along with his uncommon brain, Hawking’s hallmark is his ever-present humor, which Redmayne manages to convey with his eyes and eyebrows, as he’s reduced to communicating through a voice machine.  Fate deals Hawking a horrible blow – and he spits in its face.  People will walk out of this film feeling better about themselves and their fellow humans. 

In The Imitation Game by Morten Tyldun, Benedict Cumberbatch resurrects Alan Turing, a genius of a different stripe who during WWII broke the Nazi Enigma Code and consequently saved millions of lives. Imitation works on several fronts: it moves fluidly through three different time frames – the 50’s when Turing is being persecuted by the police for indecent behavior (i.e. homosexual encounters); his prep school past; and his time at Bletchley when he and his team cracked the code.

Despite the fascinating historical aspect – and those Brits, again showing their acting chops – Imitation delivers less impact than Theory. It’s heavy-handed and too on-the-nose in portraying the resistance Turing faced from his boss (Charles Dance), as if the screenwriter needed to jimmy up the drama.  Whenever you see the Opposition going red-faced with anger, assume the screenwriter is desperate. 

The film’s main flaw, though, is that Turing is presented is an Aspergian-type character unable to make human connections – at least onscreen.  Presumably he makes them off-screen, since the cops are on his case for consorting with a man who subsequently robs him. 

The chilliness and opacity of the character limits the film’s impact.  I’d also fault the filmmakers for failing to explore queer desire.  All we get is Turing proposing to colleague Keira Knightley in order to keep her on his team to break the code.  I mean, the English may be repressed, but wouldn’t she have sensed he was, well, not that into her?  Moreover, the film never connects the dots between Britain’s barbarian attitudes toward homosexuality and Turing’s eventual suicide.  The soaring score – signaling Big Historical Film – by the reliably fine Alexandre Desplat somewhat counters the prevailing coldness.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

'Wild Tales' and more at Toronto Fest 2014

Maybe I’m just picking the films well, but my 2014 Toronto International Film Festival experience has been an exceptional one. Back in New York, I’d already seen some of the Festival’s standout entries: Foxcatcher, The Imitation Game, Whiplash, The Drop and Mr. Turner, all of which made a splash here with their stars and directors in attendance. But there was plenty more to savor, and other tantalizing films I just couldn’t fit into my schedule or had to forego because the only seats left were in the dreaded front rows facing the mammoth screens at the Scotiabank complex.

I’ve already written about the wonderful The Theory of Everything and Love & Mercy, the entertaining Pride, and the worthy Rosewater. Here are some other highlights from Toronto 2014:

I couldn’t get a reasonably distant seat at the press screening of the buzzed-about Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle Nightcrawler, so I settled in for The Humbling, Barry Levinson’s film based on the novel by Philip Roth, with
a screenplay co-written by Buck Henry. And I’m so glad I didn’t miss it. This is the best vehicle Al Pacino’s had in years, a deliciously mad comedy in which he plays Simon Axler, a famous actor having a mental breakdown over his declining powers. Simon’s morale is boosted tremendously when he’s visited by Pegeen (Greta Gerwig), the daughter of a former co-star, who’s always had a crush on Simon and finally acts upon her desire. That doesn’t sit well with two former lovers of Pegeen’s who come calling, the very angry Louise (Kyra Sedgwick) and Prince (Billy Porter), formerly known as Priscilla before his sex change. Oh, and there’s also the crazy stalker (Nina Arianda) Simon met when he was institutionalized, who’s convinced Simon is just the man she needs to murder her despised husband because he played a killer in a movie. The film constantly shuttles back and forth between Simon’s fevered imagination and reality, although it’s left to the audience to decide just where one ends and the other begins. Pacino is onscreen throughout this dementedly funny phantasmagoria, giving a soulful and nuanced performance as a man truly suffering for his art and his ebbing capabilities.

With its buzz out of Cannes and Telluride, Argentinian director Damian Szifron’s Wild Tales was a must-see, and a
packed house at the Elgin Theatre roared at this outrageous collection of vignettes about anger and vengeance. The opening pre-credits sequence set aboard an airplane has a hilarious premise I don’t dare spoil; it’s enough to say this appetizer got a thunderous round of applause. There’s an episode involving road rage that outdoes Steven Spielberg’s classic Duel for sheer delirium, another to delight anyone who’s been driven around the bend by bureaucratic rigidity and indolence, a diner encounter that turns delightfully deadly, and the most chaotic wedding reception ever committed to film. During the post-screening Q&A, the handsome director said the unifying theme of his tales is "the pleasure of losing control." Szifron has the bold visual style and go-for-broke wit of Quentin Tarantino at his best, and seems destined for a major directing career.

I didn’t care much for the dreary Greenberg, director Noah Baumbach’s last collaboration with star Ben Stiller, so I’m very happy to report that the new Baumbach-Stiller movie, While We’re Young, is a delight. Stiller plays Josh, a struggling New York documentary filmmaker married to Cornelia (Naomi Watts), the daughter of an esteemed documentarian. At
a lecture, Josh is approached by a young fan, Jamie (Adam Driver), and his wife Darby (Amanda Seyfried), and before long Josh and Cornelia are ditching their baby-obsessed friends to hang out with these Brooklyn hipsters. But Jamie isn’t as laid-back as he seems; in fact, he’s quite the ambitious operator. Along with that main plot-driver, Baumbach gets lots of comic mileage out of Josh and Cornelia’s attempts to recapture their youthful energy, including a witty montage contrasting their state-of-the-art lifestyle with Jamie and Darby’s low-tech, retro pleasures. As a man of a certain age who lives amidst the hipsters of Brooklyn (for whom Driver has become the poster boy) and sometimes pines for his lost youth, I can certainly relate to the witty cross-generational insights of Baumbach’s latest.

Other very worthwhile Toronto picks include Seymour: An Introduction, Ethan Hawke’s gentle and thought-provoking documentary portrait of Seymour Bernstein, a once-acclaimed pianist who left the performance world to become a brilliant teacher; Francois Ozon’s mischievous and gender-fluid The New Girlfriend, in which Romain Duris finds his true identity by dressing as his dead wife; The Good Lie, starring Reese Witherspoon and a quartet of engaging African actors in a poignant story of Sudanese refugees adjusting to a new life in America; and Men, Women & Children, Jason Reitman’s ensemble drama about social media’s impact on lives both young and old.

Tomorrow, in between screenings, I plan to check out visual-effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull’s presentation of UFOTOG, his 12-minute 3D short shot in 4K at 120 frames per second. Should be an eye-opener.

NYFF 2014 preview

The 52nd  New York Film Festival is only a few brief weeks away, welcoming to Lincoln Center some of the year's buzziest titles. Taking place as it does in the wake of the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals, many NYFF offerings have already screened elsewhere, and are greatly anticipated -- as are, of course, its high-profile opening-night and centerpiece world premieres. So, which movies have this year's attendees the most excited? Which films have writers and fans planning the most elaborate stakeout strategies? We've selected those titles fueling the most debate and, the better to illustrate just what about them has the blogosphere all hot and bothered to opine, included trailers where available!

Gone Girl (Opening Night)


Inherent Vice (Centerpiece)


Birdman (Closing Night)


Clouds of Sils Maria


Foxcatcher



Goodbye to Language

Listen Up Philip


Maps to the Stars

Mr. Turner

Pasolini


Two Days, One Night


Whiplash


The Wonders


The 50-Year Argument


The Look of Silence

Merchants of Doubt


Seymour: An Introduction

Billy Wilder in the evening

What cinephile could want more than an upfront and pretty intimate evening spent with a cool, casual, candid, even catty legendary and beloved giant of cinema?

Maybe it wasn’t a wild night but definitely a “Wilder” one Monday evening at the Film Forum event where acclaimed German director Volker Schlöndorff introduced Billy, How Did You Do It?,  his near three-hour 1988-89 documentary about his late friend.

It was Wilder years ago who, when he was visiting Munich where the younger filmmaker was living, initiated the contact after he had seen and much admired Schlöndorff’s 1975 The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum.

The Billy doc has rarely been seen — Wilder refused to let it be shown during his lifetime — except for an airing in the U.K. (it was produced for the BBC), a hush-hush screening about 20 years ago at New York’s Goethe House and last year at the Forum. (Kino-Lorber distributes a much shorter version of the doc.)

In his introductory remarks Monday, Schlöndorff shared that when he showed his pal the doc, Wilder — a filmmaker who knew what he wanted and got it — objected to such things as seeing him sweating, chewing gum, scratching his back, etc. (yes, it’s all up there — but briefly — on the screen) and ordered that “No way, not in my lifetime” will the film be shown.

Devastated by so harsh a reaction to so many hours of filming and editing, Schlöndorff went ahead and granted the BBC permission. Of course, this decision caused a serious breach in the cherished friendship, one strengthened by their shared German backgrounds (though Wilder was born in what is now a corner of Poland). Happily, the friendship was rekindled before Wilder’s death in 2002.

Schlöndorff structured Billy, How Did You Do It? as Truffaut did with his 1983 Alfred Hitchcock-François Truffaut book of interviews (a Bible to many of us) by using individual films as springboards for discussion. The challenge of finding a structure was, in fact, one of Wilder’s more interesting points in the doc. Structure, he said, in talking about the script for Witness For the Prosecution is “the toughest job,” and much more difficult than dialogue (he tipped his hat to the play’s author Agatha Christie for the Witness structure).

The structure problem also challenged Wilder in his collaboration with great pulp novelist Raymond Chandler, his co-writer on Wilder’s noir classic Double Indemnity. In his estimation, Chandler “would have been unbeatable if only he had a sense of structure.”

No surprise that the doc is rich in Wilder film clips, including rare clunkers like the ultra-corny Bing Crosby Tyrolian-themed period musical The Emperor Waltz that Wilder makes no excuses about (it was, in his word, “a catastrophe” and done to help a friend). “We all do it once [make flops],” he says, noting that even Lubitsch had one, too. His Ace in the Hole wasn’t a flop but failed to win audiences. Wilder dismisses the usual excuses (“it was released too close to Christmas” or “it was ahead of its time”) to matter-of-factly explain that “it affronted audiences” with things such as its downbeat ending, Kirk Douglas' immoral character, etc.

Wilder tips in this doc “wilder-ness” include his view that narration should always add to the story and not repeat what audiences already know. Wilder also praises the virtues of an all-important (and often silent) single visual in films (his and others’) that can tell so much. He cited the liquor bottle hidden in a lighting fixture in The Lost Weekend and the exposed leg in It Happened One Night, the tell-all hand of missing fingers in The 39 Steps and, in his great friend and mentor Ernst Lubitsch’s Ninotchka, the hat that the harsh Commie Garbo dons that signals her transition to the Western and amorous side of life.

And, of course, there are the memorable surprises Wilder cherishes, like the loud pop at the end of his Oscar-winning The Apartment that is not a gunshot — as the audience and co-star Shirley MacLaine’s character are led to believe — but a freshly uncorked champagne bottle. And how about that stalled getaway car in Double Indemnity? Wilder was struck with the idea just before they tackled the scene when his own car stalled in a parking lot.

While a number of highly regarded books on Wilder, including FJI Executive Editor Kevin Lally’s Wilder Times, are teeming with information and insights into the great filmmaker, Billy, How Did You Do It?  has the benefit of those proverbial (moving) pictures that can speak a thousand words. And so we can see a man of boundless humor, so comfortable in his skin, who loved life, art, craft, and beauty.

There was also a belief in his fellow man. The doc reveals Wilder’s faith in a universal human nature that all people share (and was his job to tap into) — a counterintuitive belief considering the tragedies of the Holocaust he witnessed in the very early post-war years in Europe as a documentary filmmaker. The doc also reveals a man who believed in playing by the rules and having the wisdom and appreciation to be a lifelong art collector — a passion, he notes, that eventually, in one evening at an auction of his holdings, brought him more money than an entire storied career in film.

And there’s some dishy stuff about his great friends Marlene Dietrich (her lovers were many and he names names) and protegé William Holden (he was an “inhibited” man, which is why he became an alcoholic). Wilder went on to comment that while Holden was a great champion of endangered species in Africa, “he forgot that he was an endangered species.”

But Bogart presented a problem for Wilder in Sabrina, apparently because “he was not used to humor.” The two didn’t get along but Wilder got through it by telling himself, “I’m in jail but not for life."

On the other hand, making Love in the Afternoon was “fun to do. It was Paris, I was young and we had three rooms at the Ritz [where the film was shot].” Wilder was also a great admirer of the film’s star Gary Cooper, “a shy honest man but amazingly elegant. And irreplaceable.”

Wilder tried and failed to get Mae West as star of Sunset Boulevard and Montgomery Clift for the role William Holden landed. Wilder plucked Holden from character actor anonymity at the studio and launched him on a great Hollywood career.

Hollywood legend Otto Preminger, as the Nazi general in Wilder’s Stalag 17, always forgot his lines and Marilyn Monroe, his Some Like it Hot and The Seven-Year Itch star, was a big challenge, a “pathetic figure” who was unable, on one long occasion, to get a simple 3-word line right.

Wilder, in Billy, is generous with compliments for his collaborators like cinematographer John Seitz, co-writer I.A.L. Diamond, and production designer Alexandre Trauner (who so effectively created the Witness For the Prosecution sets).

Wilder as doc star is a funny, spontaneous, comfortable and comfortably dressed (he’s seen often in suspenders, a casual short-sleeved shirt, his signature hat) screen presence. He’s droll throughout, offering tidbits like why he ended Witness For the Prosecution with a stabbing and not a shooting: “I hate the noise; I’m a delicate creature.”

Schlöndorff and Film Forum also took the opportunity at the Wilder evening to plug Zietgeist Films’ Diplomatie, Schlöndorff’s drama starring French vets Niels Arestrup and André Dussollier about Germany’s military governor of occupied Paris and his tangle with the Swedish consul-general. The Zeitgeist release bows at the Forum on October 15th.

As delicious as it is, Billy, How Did You Do It?  leaves viewers wanting something more, something impossible, something along the lines of: Billy, Will You Do It Again For Us?

At least Billy, How Did You Do It? allows us to extrapolate that Wilder did it with what he was born with, although luck, timing and determination were indispensable midwives. And his films — and audiences — are all the better for it.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Jon Stewart brings directing debut 'Rosewater' to Toronto Fest

As a nightly viewer of “The Daily Show,” I made it a priority to catch the first public screening at the Toronto Film Festival of Jon Stewart’s feature writing and directing debut, Rosewater. This is the movie that Stewart shot during his summer 2013 hiatus from his TV hosting duties, and a very commendable debut it is—not so much for its competent filmmaking but for the important story it tells.

Rosewater is based on Then They Came for Me, Iranian Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari’s account of his imprisonment on bogus charges of espionage soon after the equally bogus re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the protests that followed. Stewart had a personal connection to Bahari’s plight: A satirical “Daily Show” segment shot in Iran, in which correspondent Jason Jones jokingly called Bahari a spy, was a major factor in his arrest.

Introducing the film at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Stewart described it as “a universal story about the cost of oppression, not only to those oppressed but those who oppress them.” And indeed a large portion of the running time is taken up with the relationship between Bahari (played by Mexican star Gael Garcia Bernal) and his chief interrogator (Danish actor Kim Bodnia), known only as Rosewater for the fragrance he wears. It’s a physically and psychologically abusive relationship, to be sure, but also at times absurdly comical, as when Rosewater grimly asks him “Who is Anton Chekhov?” or becomes entranced by Bahari’s mischievous confession that he’s addicted to sexual massages (especially the ones in that American hotbed of massages, Fort Lee, New Jersey).

Rosewater is very well-acted and the location work in Jordan, doubling for Tehran, feels authentic. But a story like this is inevitably claustrophobic, and first-time filmmaker Stewart doesn’t yet have the visual resourcefulness to keep the narrative from feeling somewhat slack. (He does employ some CGI to illustrate the power of social media in igniting the Iranian protests and in calling attention to Bahari’s case.) Still, in this time when journalists, bloggers and video diarists are in more peril than ever, the message of Rosewater couldn’t be more urgent.

Onstage at the Princess of Wales with Bernal and Bahari, Stewart was like he is on “The Daily Show”—passionate about issues but ready with a good funny line. He joked that Canadians’ friendliness is “almost upsetting,” since it’s so easy to confuse with sarcasm. When Bahari mentioned that Bernal is Mexican, Stewart turned to the actor and shouted, “You lied to me!” Asked for any movie influences on his first directing effort, he offered, “I’m a big Ghostbusters guy.”

But seriously, folks… Stewart said his chief inspiration was Bahari’s memoir, and the way it found “absurdity in a bleak situation.” And he warned all authoritarian states: “Do not arrest journalists—they remember things.”

Bernal said he was honored to be chosen to interpret Bahari’s plight and to be part of the fight against “a big infrastructure to suppress and intimidate.”

Bahari reflected that an experience like his endows you with “a certain responsibility,” noting, “I was lucky that I was working for a Western news organization.” He reminded the audience that there are many other unknown journalists in prison without much hope of attracting the world’s attention. He cautioned that one person and even one film won’t change the world, but “collectively we can lend our voices.” Open Road Films releases Rosewater in the United States on Nov. 7.

From Pub Crawlers to Night Crawlers

The French are making a strong showing at TIFF this year, with a slate of 36 features and 5 shorts.  Benoit Jacquot is back with "3 Hearts," a dark parable about how accident and quirks of timing can impact 3 interconnected lives.  One night in a provincial city, Marc (Benoit Poelvoorde) meets Sylvie (Charlotte Gainsbourg).  They wander the streets until morning and set a date to meet in Paris a few days later.  When Marc doesn't show up on time (a health crisis intervenes)the twist of fate leaves him romantically torn between Sylvie and her sister (Chiara Mastroianni).  In an inspired stroke of casting, the sisters' mother is played by Mastroianni’s real life mother Catherine Deneuve, who seems to know the characters’ hearts before they do.

In foregrounding the primacy of physical passion over just about everything else -- children, family, social decorum -- this film could somehow only be made in France.  It’s hard to imagine such folies d’amour in the U.S.  Why two gorgeous women would be gaga over Poelvoorde, nerdy, hardly leading man material, and a tax inspector to boot, is a mystery the film never divulges.  Yet Benoit Jacquot reliably delivers a neatly packaged love triangle that is never less than absorbing, its dark outcome telegraphed by the ominous tone of the score.

Arthouse darling Mia Hansen-Love weighs in with "Eden" about the French electronic music scene – think garage and Daft Punk -- in the 90's.  Her latest effort disappoints because more than anything it feels like a concert film, with the characters relegated to the background.  Charming, charismatic Paul (Felix de Givry) is taking his first steps as a DJ.  With his best friend he creates a duo called "Cheers, and they rapidly find their audience.  They are quickly caught up in a euphoric and short-lived rise to fame and Paul, blinded by his passion for the work, overlooks his own life. 

What's appealing is the evergreen theme of young ambitions traced through to later life, with all its disappointments.  The director's impressionistic handling of the club scenes and scooter rides through Paris magically capture youthful abandon.  In one indelible moment a couple on a scooter all but veer out of the frame as the sound track goes silent.  The clipped editing style, which ends scenes before they end, is reminiscent of Noah Baumbach's in "Frances Ha." 

Yet the characters fall in and out of affairs with so little affect it's hard to care. Greta Gerwig makes an always welcome appearance as Paul's flaky American older woman gf and Pauline Etienne shines as perhaps the love of his life.  “Eden” fluidly handles the passage of time and death of dreams but it goes on way too long, the rave scenes become repetitive, and its tone of too cool for school holds the viewer at a distance. 

The debut of writer/director Dan Gilroy, “Night” showcases the talent of Jake Gylenhaal in a fully invested performance.  Borderline psychotic, his character Louis Bloom (and why do I dislike the fact that the name’s Jewish) is a criminal low life who stumbles on a career of supplying video of L.A. accidents and murders to a low-rated TV station sporting the motto “If it bleeds it leads.”  That Bloom is ruthless, amoral, and disciplined enables him to rise like scum to the top of this swamp.  Gylenhaal famously lost some thirty pounds for the role (perhaps out-losing Christian Bale and Matthew McConaunahy).  He wanted, he’s said in interviews, to look hungry -- and in fact in this film his sock puppet face indeed resembles some famished nocturnal creature with huge staring eyes that you might find hanging off a tree. 

Gilroy uncorks sly humor from Bloom’s penchant for dropping motivation speak, which he learned from an online business course, on both his boss at the TV station (Renee Russo) and his sole employee, a wonderful tk Assiz.  Example: when a competing night crawler offers him a gig, Bloom replies “Working for myself is more in line with my career goals.”  He has no authentic language other than the inspirational jargon he’s absorbed off the internet. 

I think Gilroy intends Bloom not only as a perverse, values-free version of Horatio Alger, but as a smalltime version of America’s white collar corporate criminals.  Perhaps the real star of the film, though, is DP Robert Elswit.  Truly, you could watch this film for the cinematography alone.  From the opening credits Elswit creates a mesmerizing L.A. urban nocturne, a string of images worthy of hanging in a museum.  Electric blue is his signature color, and he also likes garish yellow moons and cars wearing bonnets of light.  Even a red and yellow Shell Station becomes a thing of beauty.