Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close… Manipulation or Emotion?

Posted on by Mr Ridley

Stephen Daldry

Stephen Daldry’s film adaption of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was both renowned and reviled upon its theatrical release last December.  The 2005 novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer also met with mixed reception upon its reception.  Britain’s Spectator magazine stated that “the book is a heartbreaker: tragic, funny, intensely moving.”  But Michiko Kakutani of the NY Times was critical of Safran Foer’s book, describing the story as “cloying” and the main character as “unsympathetic.”

Of course, critics are only one limited reference for understanding a film’s (or book’s) merits.  Ultimately, we all need to decide for ourselves.  But why would there be such divisive opinions on the book and Stephen Daldry’s film adaption?

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VOH Filmmaker of the Week: David Fincher

Posted on by HakSnider33

David Fincher

David Fincher

Last month, director David Fincher’s latest film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) was released on video.  The film performed fairly well at the box office and was reasonably well-received by the critics.  However, despite his big reputation as a director, Fincher has not yet been recognized as a member of our own VOH Hall of Visionaries.  In light of the most recent addition to his filmography, should David Fincher now be considered a visionary filmmaker? Read More

The Cabin in the Woods… out with the old (school), in with the new (genre mashup)?

Posted on by Late Night

Drew Goddard at the 2012 SXSW premiere of The Cabin in the Woods

By Late Night
First-time director Drew Goddard steps up to the plate in a big way with the sci-fi/government conspiracy/slasher horror/monster movie mashup, The Cabin in the Woods (opening April 13).  Goddard is the writer of the thoroughly entertaining sci-fi/monster movie Cloverfield (2008), but he is better known by his work for the small screen, as a writer/producer for Lost, Alias and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

It is no accident that many visionary directors write their own material.  And it’s readily apparent from this short clip that Goddard can build interest and suspense with just a few words:

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“Actionary” presents just about all the action you can handle

Posted on by Late Night

Presented entirely for your cinematic enjoyment, the following is a masterfully-edited selection of the most fantastic action sequences of recent years, set to the wildly shifting time signatures of modern electronic music.   The full title on YouTube is Actionary 720p in Dubstep styles (fix), and it claims to only use footage from official movie trailers.  Consider it the uber-trailer for the entire genre of big-budget action films; it is not concerned with context, it is only about celebrating the moments of kinetic movie magic created by hacks and visionaries alike, perfectly matching the on-screen motions to the ebb and flow of the dubstep track (and on a related note, it is also a perfect example of why dubstep is taking over the world).

Prepare to fall in love with the movies again:

Can TV Showrunners Become Cinematic Visionaries?

Posted on by HakSnider33

AMC's Mad Men

by HakSnider33
Ever since HBO’s groundbreaking series The Sopranos changed the television landscape forever with its debut in 1999, the cable television drama has rapidly developed into a vital art form that has, in many ways, stolen a substantial amount of thunder from the Hollywood motion picture industry. Cable television series, such as Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and The Wire, have deservedly received critical acclaim, while pushing the envelope of cinematic storytelling. Among the most influential of the series currently airing is AMC’s Mad Men, a dramatic series created by showrunner Matthew Weiner. With its unique brand of dark, edgy drama and black comedy, Mad Men has made an indelible mark on pop culture, both in terms of fashion (the return of the 60’s) and the creation of new stars, such as Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks.

However, Weiner will make his feature film directorial debut in 2013 with You Are Here, which will star Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson and Amy Poehler. Will Weiner’s skills translate from television to the big screen and can a visionary TV creator/showrunner become a visionary feature film director?

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Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, a Perfect Film

Posted on by Mr Ridley

Roman Polanski

This week, Roman Polanski’s classic film, Chinatown, returns triumphantly for new audiences when it is released for the first time on Blu-ray.

Chinatown (1974) rightfully shares company with some of the most highly regarded films of the American cinema.  The film delivers on all fronts – from writing, directing, photography, production design and editing, to a fabulous cast of actors.  Chinatown’s creative forces integrate effortlessly to create a timeless film, which transcends genre.  In this respect, it is a perfect film.

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Does It Take a Visionary to Make Sacha Baron Cohen Funny?

Posted on by Late Night

Larry Charles knows funny

Sacha Baron Cohen may not be everyone’s favorite satirical comic (I think he’s hilarious), but he has undeniably carved out his own unique space in the pop culture landscape.  One of the keys to Cohen’s success is his steady collaboration with Larry Charles, who directed Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and Bruno.  This team’s latest project, The Dictator (opening May 11), is supposedly based on a novel written by the late Saddam Hussein.  Heh.  Sounds like something you might see joked about on an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Hmmm.

The music alone in this clip qualifies it for the kick ass trailer folder:

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Release the HACKen!

Posted on by HakSnider33

Liam in Wrath of the Titans

Liam Zeus has already released the Kraken

by HakSnider33
Did we really need a sequel to the 2010 clunker-of-a-remake Clash of the Titans?  Absolutely not, but Wrath of the Titans opens nationwide today.  Like the first movie, Wrath of the Titans stars the rapidly fading Sam Worthington and Liam Neeson, but this installment was directed by hack director Jonathan Liebesman, who directed the craptastic Battle Los Angeles, instead of hack director Louis Leterrier, who directed the only bad recent Marvel Studios film, The Incredible Hulk.

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Is The Invisible War invisible to Hollywood?

Posted on by Late Night

Kirby Dick at Sundance 2012

Documentary directors get no respect in Tinseltown. The majors will pay lip service to some of top talent, but they never seem to give them wide theatrical releases. The exception, of course, is Michael Moore.  Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 is the high-grossing doc in history; with pulling power like that, the studios will overlook the politics to get a piece of the action.

But it is much more common for documentary directors to struggle for screens at the multiplexes. Kirby Dick, best known for exposing the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and their hypocritical rating system in This Film Is Not Yet Rated, recently won the Audience Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival with his latest documentary The Invisible War.   This should make the film a sure bet, but the studios appear uninterested in distributing this one.  Perhaps Dick reddened too many important faces* with Not Yet Rated (Box Office Magazine calls him an “agit-provocateur “).  Or maybe it’s because of the subject matter of War.  From the website www.invisiblewarmovie.com:

THE INVISIBLE WAR is a groundbreaking investigative documentary about one of our country’s most shameful and best kept secrets: the epidemic of rape within our US military.


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Park Chan-Wook is an All-Around Talent

Posted on by HakSnider33

Park Chan-Wook

Visionary Oldboy Director Park Chan-Wook

by HakSnider33
Although he is conspicuously absent from VOH’s Hall of Visionaries, Park Chan-Wook is one of the most acclaimed and respected filmmakers in the world.  And with his upcoming film Stoker, Park will make his English language directorial debut.  Not much is currently known about the film, which will star Matthew Goode (Watchmen), Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman.  However, it should be noted that the track record of international filmmakers that have made the transition to Hollywood film is mixed at best, especially for the filmmakers who were not native English speakers.

Visionaries such as Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener), Guillermo de Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amores Perros, Babel), Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Professional) and Bernardo Bertolucci (The Conformist, The Last Emperor) have all successfully made the transition. However, there are countless others, such as Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas), Wong Kar-Wai (Chungking Express, My Blueberry Nights) Ringo Lam (Maximum Risk)and George Sluizer (The Vanishing), whose skills did not completely survive the translation.

JSAJoint Security Area (2000)

Does Park Chan-Wook have what it takes to make the leap to directing English language films?  There is no way to know for certain until at least Stoker comes out, but at this point we can still make determinations regarding whether or not Park is a visionary filmmaker, as we can place much more confidence in an international visionary’s skills surviving a transition to Hollywood, based upon the successes of people like del Toro, Meirelles and Bertolucci.  Furthermore, if Park is not a visionary, we should not even care whether or not his skills will get lost in translation, since Hollywood is already filled with fungible, replacement-level directors.

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