“BLOW OUT”

By Travis Crawford

The ending of Brian De Palma’s Blow Out hits you in the chest like a hammer. It’s not supposed to be this way; American studio movies don’t end like that. But of course it’s the heartbreaking denouement that has partially helped to make the film endure in the 30 intervening years since its commercially disastrous release, though one can certainly fathom how it alienated audiences at the time (for the record, some critics were passionate defenders; it’s just that most viewers don’t savor being implicated in the spectacle of violence as it is quickly transformed into tragedy). As De Palma himself has wryly observed, the studio likely just expected another erotic romp like Dressed to Kill (De Palma’s previous surprise hit for the Filmways outfit) and were unprepared for a downbeat but cinematically exhilarating last gasp of bravura filmmaking, political critique, and social cynicism that made its ’70s predecessors like The Conversation and The Parallax View seem like Oliver! by contrast. But as the greatest film ever made by one of the two or three most important filmmakers to emerge from the “New Hollywood” movement of the ’60s and ’70s, Blow Out is among the most significant films of the past three decades, and the film has been thankfully reappraised in subsequent years. Hopefully its new Criterion Collection Blu-ray and DVD special-edition release will also help to introduce it to a younger generation of film enthusiasts.

Of course, during the ’70s (clearly, a loosely defined era in American filmmaking), challenging audience expectations — whether socio-political or purely filmic — had become rather expected, so perhaps De Palma (much like his old friend Scorsese who artistically triumphed with the similarly commercially underappreciated Raging Bull the previous year — trivia note: it was actually De Palma who first introduced Scorsese to De Niro at a party) was unaware of the post-Jaws/Star Wars shift in the new Reagan-era American cinema. But De Palma had just come off a hit with Dressed to Kill, and had also enjoyed a pop culture phenomenon with Carrie only a few years earlier; even … Read the rest

“FANTASTIC MR. FOX”

By Jason Guerrasio

Not often does a director with an indie pedigree seamlessly segue into subject matter like… children’s literature.

But in many ways Wes Anderson has been training for the moment to use his hyper-stylized, extremely detailed storytelling to make a film like Fantastic Mr. Fox. Based on the Roald Dohl classic, Anderson (and co-writer, Noah Baumbach) use the book’s premise of a sly fox who outwits his farmer neighbors to steal their food to create a film that dazzles children and adults alike with it’s Andersonesque storytelling and stop-motion animation.

When we meet Fox — voiced by George Clooney with motormouth charm (similar to his character Everett in O, Brother Where Art Thou?) — his life is about to change as he learns he’s going to become a father and swears to his wife (Meryl Streep) that he will give up robbing chickens from coops and other dangerous stunts, though it’s obvious he still has a love for it.

Years pass and Fox — dressed in an Anderson staple: a tweed jacket — is going through a mid-life crisis. Unsatisfied as a columnist for the local paper, he’s obsessed to live in the big tree on a hill and his itch to rob the local farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean is becoming unbearable.

With his loyal friend/superintendent Kyle (Wallace Wolodarsky), an opossum, by his side, the two head out to rob the farmers. While back home, Fox’s son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) has to deal with being less fantastic as his father, and it things get worse when his much more athletically gifted and better looking cousin Kristofferson (Eric Anderson) moves in with them. As Fox continues to have a blast robbing the farmers, things get serious when Boggis, Bunce and Bean set a trap to kill Fox, but are only able to shoot off his tale. Family squabbles are put aside as the Fox’s home gets destroyed by the farmers over the music of the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” and the Fox’s and their friends (including Bill Murry as their attorney Badger) dig to find safety, and plan … Read the rest

IFP ANNOUNCES SCRIPT TO SCREEN LINEUP

By Filmmaker Staff

On March 20 & 21, IFP, with The Writer’s Guild of America, East, will present its annual Script to Screen Conference in New York City. This year’s conference opens with The Daily Show’s Steve Bodow and closes with Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Twilight) and Brian Koppelman (Rounders, Ocean’s Thirteen). Other guests include Peter Hedges (About a Boy), Debra Granik (2010 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Winter’s Bone) Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls), Ry Russo-Young (You Wont Miss Me) and recent Filmmaker “25 New Face” Lena Dunham (Delusional Downtown Divas) to name a few. The guests will discuss new challenges and opportunities taking place in the film industry and provide first-hand stories and advice to aspiring filmmakers and film lovers everywhere.

Past guests have included Noah Baumbach, Adrienne Shelly, Lee Daniels, Lisa Cholodenko, Michael Moore and Todd Haynes.

For a complete line-up of the list of participants, or to purchase a pass, click here. Select Script to Screen Conference panels will be streamed live in partnership with UStream.com and a number of panels will be available for crowd-sourced questions throughout the weekend. For more information or to take part in the pre-Conference crowd-sourcing opportunities, go to www.ifp.org.… Read the rest

NOAH BAUMBACH, “MARGOT AT THE WEDDING”

By Nick Dawson

NICOLE KIDMAN IN DIRECTOR NOAH BAUMBACH’S MARGOT AT THE WEDDING. COURTESY PARAMOUNT VANTAGE.

If you believe what you read, Noah Baumbach’s films — sharp, witty, poignant and sometimes devastating — are drawn directly from his life. The son of Village Voice film critic Georgia Brown and novelist and film critic Jonathan Baumbach, Baumbach debuted as a writer-director in 1995 with his acclaimed Kicking and Screaming, the first of a number of films made during his twenties about New Yorkers in their twenties. After his second film, Mr Jealousy (1997), Baumbach admits that he got “derailed” and ended up making Highball (1997) pseudonymously then scripted a TV movie, Thirty (2000), neither of which he considers to be his best work. However, his career was re-energized by his association with Wes Anderson: he brought Baumbach on board to co-write The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), and then produced Baumbach’s triumphant The Squid and the Whale (2005), a semi-autobiographical film about the disintegration of a bohemian Brooklyn family which left the world in no doubt about Baumbach’s skills as both writer and director. (In addition, Anderson and Baumbach recently adapted Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which will be released in 2009.)

Margot at the Wedding is the perfect companion piece to The Squid and the Whale: like its predecessor it shows us a world of callous but creative individuals from the perspective of teenagers who probably have more insight into human behavior than their parents. Set over the course of a few days, it chronicles the return of novelist Margot (Nicole Kidman), with her son Claude (Zane Pais) in tow, to her old childhood home for the wedding of her formerly estranged sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is Baumbach’s wife). That Margot disapproves of the groom, Malcolm (Jack Black), that she is having an affair and is planning to leave her husband, Jim (John Turturro), that Pauline is secretly pregnant and Margot can’t keep her mouth shut about that (or anything else for that matter), all adds to an already complicated situation. Channeling the 70s in … Read the rest

NYFF.45 #3

In Jamie Stuart’s third installment of his shorts series from the New York Film Festival Todd Haynes explains his filmmaking methods and the motivations behind his latest film, I’m Not There.

Approximate running time: 4:33.

Download the short here by right clicking and choosing Save Target or Save Link. (58M)

Please visit Jamie’s site at www.mutinycompany.com. … Read the rest

THOUGHTS ON SUNDANCE: THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

By Scott Macaulay

A friend and I were talking about how, for those whose parents remained married, Noam Baumbach’s new film plays as a charming coming-of-age comedy. But for children of divorced parents, The Squid and the Whale seems to come off as a harrowing and painful relationship drama. I’m in the former camp, so I appreciated the excellent direction and acting (particularly by Jeff Daniels), the film’s balance between irony and affection, and its concise, purposeful pacing. It’s like an elegant novella extracted from a well-remembered life.
… Read the rest