Coppola experiments with 3D...but for five minutes only

By Kevin Lally

While we wait for the 3D debuts of Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese later this year, another of the grand movie masters who dominated the 1970s is unveiling his vision for the stereoscopic medium at the Toronto Film Festival. Francis Ford Coppola is back with his third feature following a ten-year absence that began in 1998, and the twobrief 3D sequences in it aren't the only visual flourishes on display. The Edgar Allen Poe-inspired ghost story/murder mystery Twixt evokes memories of Coppola's 1983 Rumble Fish, his boldly experimental youth drama that took so much heat at the time mainly because it was such a radical,offbeatdeparture from his epic 1970s successes. That film's sparseadditions of splashes of color to its black-and-white palette are given expanded treatment in Twixt, and the results are oftenquite beautiful: a black-and-white Poe (Ben Chaplin)holding a lantern that shines golden light; red candles and window panessupplying the only color in a cleric's classroom; and of course, red blood trickling down at the climax. The3D only appears during two scenes of duress for the lead character Hall Baltimore, an alcoholic, blocked horror author played by a puffy Val Kilmer, but their images of steep wooden stairs, rotating gears, andclose-ups of Kilmer loomingover the audience prove that often with3D, less can be more.

Those who will never forgive Coppola for abandoning commercial cinema won't be interested, but the clearly low-budget Twixt does have its felicities, such as its portrait of a haunted, David Lynch-like small town where the hardware store doubles as abookstore, to Kilmer's Brando and James Mason impersonations and his drunken struggle to write the first sentence of his new novel, to Bruce Dern's insinuating sheriff with delusions of literary grandeur. There's also an unsettlinglypersonal plot thread involving the long-ago boating death of Baltimore's teenage daughter, a painful reflection of Coppola's own similar tragic loss of his young son. Likely to be self-distributed, Twixt is too eccentric and insular to attract amainstream audience, but Coppola is still innovating and capable of creating striking images.

On a more commercial note, Norwegian director Morten Tyldum delivered a true Hollywood calling card in Toronto with Headhunters, a diabolically clever, outrageously grisly thriller based on the novel by popular Nordic author Jo Nesbo and produced by Yellow Bird, the same people behind Sweden's wildly successful Millennium Trilogy. Aksel Hennie stars as a corporate headhunter who really makes the big bucks from his secret life as an art-theft mastermind. But when he targets a victim with dark secrets of his own (Nicolaj Coster-Waldau of HBO's "Games of Thrones"), there's hell to pay in some of the funniest and most shocking black-comedy moments you'll see onscreen all year. The director and star, beaming, were both at the Sunday night screening, with Hennie making the astute observation that because Scandinavian movies don't have budgets for big explosions, "We find things inside people that explode."

Magnolia Pictures will be handling U.S. distribution, and they've got a winner for genre audiences and beyond. And we'll surely be hearing more from Morten Tyldum.

'Contagion' and 'Warrior' kick off the fall movie season

By Sarah Sluis

The fall has a reputation for being a quiet time at the box office, but if "quiet" means no comic book movies and megabudget sequels crowding the screens, adult moviegoers may be in luck. This weekend, Contagion and Warrior, both currently rated 82% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, will battle for the top spot at the box office.

Contagion (3,222 theatres) turns a global epidemic into a taut, thrilling ride. The premise is plausible enough to make the movie both more educational and scarier than a loose, over-the-top vision of a plague. The fact that Steven Soderbergh directed this movie says it all. Besides being able to wrangle a great cast that includes Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Marion Cotillard, the thriller has a slick energy to it that brings to mind his Ocean films or Traffic. Variety is projecting the movie will be this week's winner with a $20+ million opening weekend.

A low, $20 million budget and good reviews could make Warrior (1,869 theatres) a big moneymaker for Lionsgate. The "macho" sports movie traffics in all the normal cliches, "but its raw emotional power will make strong men (and women) weep," according to Maitland McDonagh. Two brothers from hard-knock backgrounds end up facing each other in a mixed martial arts tournament, through a series of twists and plot turns that includes such unlikely backstory as "a viral video of Mad Dog Grimes' beat-down [that] has both made [one of the brothers] an underground sensation and revealed his identity to a group of marines he anonymously rescued from certain death." Whoa. I give the movie points for incorporating recent technology into the plot.

The R-rated comedy Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (1,500 theatres) follows an unfortunate looking small town boy (Nick Swardson) who discovers his parents were porn stars, so he moves to Hollywood--or would that be the San Fernando Valley?--to follow in their footsteps. Christina Ricci and Stephen Dorff round out the cast of what could be a funny movie. However, since no critics have been allowed to see it in advance, it's probably not going to end up on any must-see lists.

Finally, the horror movie Creature (1,507 theatres) will appease those in need of a more visceral adrenaline rush. The creature in question is a half-man, half-alligator dubbed Lockjaw. Need I say more? The movie also failed to screen for critics.

Burke & Hare (1 theatre) marries the macabre to comedy in this retelling of the story of two 19th century cadaver sellers who decide the best way to get fresh corpses is to murder them. The unusual documentary The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (1 theatre) compiles interviews with black power celebrities, such as Angela Davis, on Swedish television. "One feels like this most lily-white and seemingly tranquil of countries must have been mesmerized by the raw fervor and vivid passion and personalities involved," critic David Noh speculates.

On Monday, we'll see how the first post-Labor Day frame played in what has traditionally been a quiet time at the box office.

Telluride Film Festival hints at this year's Oscar contenders

By Sarah Sluis

The Telluride Film Festival is known as a festival for people who love movies. Not many sales come out of the Labor Day weekend event, but in recent years audience reactions to movies at the festival have predicted which films end up crowned at the Oscars. Both Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech first screened there, and they both ended up with the Best Picture Academy Award. This year a number of highly anticipated end-of-year films screened at Telluride. I've picked out ones that may end up making waves--or just a splash--come awards season.

The Descendants: Starring George Clooney as a father who reconnects with his children after their mother falls into a coma after a jet skiing accident, this Hawaii-set tale is the first effort from director Alexander Payne since Sideways. Payne hasn't gotten his full critical due yet, so I think this movie could receive a lot of play come awards time. IndieWire thinks so too, predicting that the movie is "sure to gain major momentum when it screens for hundreds of journalists and movie fans at the Toronto film fest this coming weekend."

The Artist: I think the future of this movie is a tossup purely because it is silent. Many people feel that no audiences will see a silent movie, making the movie too obscure to receive attention come awards season. Another camp--and this may include awards seasons experts Weinstein Co., which picked up the movie for distribution--knows the historical film hits a sweet spot. Movies about the industry, like Singin' in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard and A Star is Born, have done very well come awards season, and voters may be suckers for a film that salutes their business.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: This movie, which is on my to-see list, is the first English-language film of Tomas Alfredson, who directed the haunting Let the Right One In. Hollywood Reporter came out mostly in favor of the movie ((based on a well-known John le Carr novel), with critic Deborah Young noting "it is one of the few films so visually absorbing, felicitous shot after shot, that its emotional coldness is noticed only at the end, when all the plot twists are unraveled in a solid piece of thinking-man's entertainment for upmarket thriller audiences." Alfredson's Let the Right One In could also be described as emotionally cold, when in fact its coldness stokes the film's emotional impact. I hope Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy falls into the same category. Regardless, Alfredson is on a two-hit streak and will be a director with many projects to choose from in the future.

Shame: The second feature from Steve McQueen, who directed Hunger a couple of years ago, Shame tells the story of a sex addict (Michael Fassbender) and his sister (Carey Mulligan) in New York City. IndieWire praised it as a "a powerful, beautifully acted sophomore film," but also had some reservations, namely its "conventionally moralistic" ending. This movie hasn't even been picked up for distribution yet, though that is expected to happen at the Toronto Festival, so there is a chance it will show up in next year's awards season.

The Telluride response confirms that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Descendants are candidates for one of the (up to) ten Best Picture spots. I think Shame and The Artist will be tougher sells, but both are in the game. Other findings of the festival? Midwestern butter-carving comedy Butter will not be a Juno, and A Dangerous Method could also end up seeing action come awards time, particularly for performances. Reactions of critics at Toronto will help solidify the direction many of these movies are going. It's only September, many opinions abound, and the Oscar race is just beginning.

'The Help' spends a third week shining at #1

By Sarah Sluis

This Labor Day weekend was so quiet, it had the lowest audience attendance in fifteen years, something that doesn't make exhibitors or studios happy. With little competition, The Help coasted right into first place with another $14.6 million, .5% more than the previous weekend. Including Labor Day, the light Southern drama racked up $19 million and currently has $123 million in the pot thanks to its strong holding power.

The Debt, which gave adults the high-quality fare that's been lacking at the summer box office, rightly landed in second place with a $12.5 million four-day total. Sound reviews and support from adult audiences should make the movie a popular choice in subsequent weeks. Last year, Focus released The American over Labor Day weekend, earning $16 million, so The Debt fell short of the benchmark set by that adult thriller.

With two exploitation-style horror movies battling it out over the weekend, neither one shone. Apollo 18, a "found footage" scary sci-fi movie set on the moon, landed at third with a $10.7 million four-daytotal. Shark Night 3D closely followed, with a $10.3 million weekend total. Even with added revenues from 3D screens, the movie still couldn't best Apollo 18.

On the specialty front, two pictures that attracted non-indie audiences shone. Seven Days in Utopia, a faith-based sports movie, averaged $2,900 per screen on 561 screens for a $1.9 million total. Saving Private Perez, an adventure/comedy that sends a Mexican drug lord on a mission to find his brother in Iraq, grabbed the Spanish-speaking audience with $5,000 per screen at 161 locations for an $830,000 total.

Audiences weren't so eager to join in on A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy, which flopped with $825 per screen on 143 screens. IFC's Love Crime, a French-language combination of Working Girl and Single White Female, fared better, with $10,500 per screen at five locations.

This Friday, director Steven Soderbergh's epidemic drama Contagion will open, joined by porn star comedy Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star and the fight movie Warrior.

'The Debt' competes against twin horror pics 'Shark Night' and 'Apollo 18'

By Sarah Sluis

In terms of quality, The Debt (1,826 theatres) leads the pack of new releases this week. However, the more likely winner of the box office will be The Help, which still has strong momentum. The Debt opened on Wednesday to slightly less than $1 million, which means it could be tough for the movie to even break $10 million over the weekend. Based on the Israeli thriller Ha-Hov, the spy pic boasts a starry cast that includes Sam Worthington, Helen Mirren, and up-and-comer Jessica Chastain. In a summer full of teen-oriented action films, this movie is made for adults. Critic Wendy R. Weinstein admires director John Madden, who "knows how to assemble a brilliant cast, let them make the necessary connections and ultimately create chemistry." Even though the movie, set in two separate eras, "slackens in its third act," on the whole it's "unnervingly good."

What's summer without people being gobbled up by sea creatures at the beach? Last year it was Piranha 3D, this year it's Shark Night 3D (2,806 theatres). I have to say, the plot for this one is highly original--or should one say, grabbing at straws? There are teens alone on a vacation in the brackish Louisiana Bayou, a man-eating shark, and a serial killer. Throw 'em all in the pot, stir, and if it earns enough, repeat.

Space terror picture Apollo 18 (3,328 theatres) applies the found-footage technique used in horror picture Paranormal Activity to space. Apparently, a top-secret mission to the moon went terribly wrong, and only recently was the footage leaked to the media. At the sunset of America's space program, the subject feels oddly appropriate. This movie shows the "real" reason why mankind never returned to the moon, which has to do with space creatures, not budgetary restrictions.

Combining spirituality and sports, the winning formula that gave The Blind Side box office success, Seven Days in Utopia is a "G-rated piece of American cheese," according to THR critic Todd McCarthy, which "will find open arms across a wide swath of the Bible Belt and through the South." With 561 theatres in its release, this drama could make a real impact if it can find the right audience.

On the specialty front, A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy sells itself with its title. While it's releasing in the indie market, the movie is "mindless but real summer fun," according to critic David Noh, which may appeal to audiences who want to lighten up and enjoy its "surprising dollops of charm and insight."

On Tuesday, we'll see if Labor Day provided an extra boost to the end-of-summer box office doldrums.

Trailer for long-delayed 'Margaret' shows promise

By Sarah Sluis

Filmed in 2005 and since held up by not one, but two lawsuits related to director Kenneth Lonergan's (You Can Count on Me) incredibly long cut of the movie, Margaret will finally release on September 30, 2011. After watching the trailer, I think this is the rare film that might actually benefit from the long delay between filming and release. Anna Paquin starts as a high schooler who feels she has contributed to a bus accident that resulted in a woman's death. The synopsis describes her journey as such: "She has been confronted quite unexpectedly with a basic truth: that her youthful ideals are on a collision course against the realities and compromises of the adult world." Now, Paquin is six years older and has a lead role in the racy drama "True Blood." She's far since passed the age of being cast as a high schooler. This is a story about youth lost, told using an actress who has since aged six years. What's more poignant than that?

The supporting cast includes Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, and Allison Janney, all actors who have maintained their star power. Compare this to the disastrous, long-delayed 2008 animated film Delgo, which had a voice cast populated with faded young wonders like Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt (sorry, folks). Margaret has achieved something of a legendary status among those who saw initial cuts of the movie (reported to be over three hours). Martin Scorsese called it a masterpiece. He eventually sent in his editor Thelma Schoonmaker to help pare the movie down to a more normal running time. With its late-September release date, the movie is not in a time slot that screams "awards push," but there may be another reason for the timing. Lonergan's initial goal was to use the film to meditate on the aftermath of 9/11, and this year marks the tenth anniversary of the tragedy.

First look at 'The Hunger Games' a whole lotta nothing

By Sarah Sluis

When it was announced that MTV's Video Music Awards would feature a clip of The Hunger Games, I expected to see something meaty. Instead, we got a minute-long clip of the film's heroine Katniss running through the forest. There's some fire. She runs. She shoots something with her bow and arrow. That's it. Entertainment Weekly's photo preview of The Hunger Games was better, because at least it revealed some set design along with boring costuming. I'm not surprised that Lionsgate chose to save the best, most sci-fi elements for later on, but I am disappointed. Here are the top five things about The Hunger Games I'm most excited to see translated on film.

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1. The Capitol. This is where the sci-fi set design will really get to be shown off. Everything will be gleaming, modern, and totally foreign to Katniss. I hope they don't cut the scene of her being totally flummoxed by the Capitol's weird, elaborate showers. Anyone who's traveled can relate to being unable to figure out how to work odd showers.

2. The Avox. These are rebels who were captured and punished by the Capitol. Their tongues are cut out and they must must work as slaves. Although they don't look that different from regular people, they're one of the many things in the Capitol that takes Katniss by surprise.

3. Katniss' makeover. Everyone loves a good makeover film. Katniss' makeover once she reaches the Capitol promises to be The Princess Diaries on steroids. Not only does she receive a complete bodily transformation, she's also done out to the nines by her dressmaker, which leads me to...

4. The makeover team, Cinna and his dresses. All the people in the Capitol are incredibly superficial and go through extreme body modification as a form of fashion. We're talking crazy hair colors and the plastic surgery of the future. Katniss' makeover team includes Cinna, her stylist and dress designer. He looks a little out there himself, but he's also secretly rooting for Katniss. After dubbing her the "girl on fire," he outfits her in a dress that makes the people in the Capitol finally take note of those in the twelfth district, a grubby, poor area known for its coal.

5. The creatures. In the film's extreme survival games, the Gamemakers don't just throw twenty-four kids into a fake environment and let them fight to the death. They help them along, using frightening creatures to attack and kill unlucky tributes. They also use them to tweak the odds, helping out some and hurting others. In the first film, the creatures include killer wasps called "tracker jackers," mutant wolves that have the faces of the killed tributes, and the benevolent mockingjay, which can imitate human tunes.

I'm sure part of the reason Lionsgate hasn't shown these clips is because they require extensive CG work, but that didn't stop Super 8 from releasing an effects-laden teaser trailer last year. Hunger Games fans will have to be patient until next March, when they get to see the whole film beginning to end.