Gallo, Ozon, Reichardt, Schnabel, Hellman, Kechiche, Coppola, etc, Screening at Venice

The complete line-up of the 67th Venice Film Festival was announced yesterday, with twenty-two films competing for the the Golden Lion, the festival's highest honor which was awarded to Samuel Maoz's Lebanon last year. Not paying attention to films in production has its benefits; quite a few of the filmmakers presenting their works this year came as a pleasant surprise. Among those surprises: Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff which re-teams the director with her Wendy & Lucy star Michelle Williams; a brand new film written, directed, starring, composed and edited (naturally) by Vincent Gallo called Promises Written in Water; Pablo Larraín's follow-up to Tony Manero, Post mortem; Abdellatif Kechiche's Vénus noire [Black Venus], his first film since La graine et le mulet [The Secret of the Grain] which won a Special Jury Prize at the 2007 fest; Tran Anh Hung's adaptation of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood; and Road to Nowhere, the first feature-length film from Monte Hellman in twenty-one years (following, uh, Silent Night, Deadly Night 3) which stars two former "It" girls Shannyn Sossamon and Dominique Swain. Gallo will also be presenting a short entitled The Agent as part of the Horizons sidebar, which–like Promises–stars Sylvester Stallone's son Sage. Other high profile filmmakers in competition: Sofia Coppola with Somewhere; Julian Schnabel with Miral; François Ozon with Potiche; Tom Tykwer with Drei [Three]; Tsui Hark with Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame; Takashi Miike with 13 Assassins; Darren Aronofsky with Black Swan; and Álex de la Iglesia with Balada triste de trompeta [A Sad Trumpet Ballad]. Four Italian films will be screening in competition, and unfortunately the national titles have proven to be the weakest entries in recent history. The sore thumb of the lot appears to be Barney's Version, whose fine cast feels overshadowed by the fact that the last film outing from the director, Richard J. Lewis, was a direct-to-video sequel to the buddy-cop-and-dog classic K-9 (starring, uh, Jim Belushi). Tran Anh Hung and Darren Aronofsky are the only past Golden Lion winners in competition, for Cyclo in 1995 and The Wrestler in 2008 respectively. The competition line-up can be found below. The festival runs from 1-11 September.

- 13 Assassins, d. Takashi Miike, Japan
- Attenberg, d. Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece, w. Yorgos Lanthimos
- Balada triste de trompeta [A Sad Trumpet Ballad], d. Álex de la Iglesia (Dance with the Devil), Spain/France, w. Carmen Maura, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Antonio de la Torre
- Barney's Version, d. Richard J. Lewis, Canada/Italy, w. Dustin Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver
- Black Swan, d. Darren Aronofsky, USA, w. Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder, Bruce Greenwood, Scott Speedman
- Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame, d. Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China), China/Hong Kong, w. Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Li Bingbing, Tony Leung Ka-Fai
- Drei [Three], d. Tom Tykwer, Germany, w. Devid Striesow
- Happy Few, d. Antony Cordier (Douches froides), France, w. Marina Foïs, Élodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Jean-François Stévenin
- Meek's Cutoff, d. Kelly Reichardt, USA, w. Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson
- Miral, d. Julian Schnabel, France/Israel/UK/Italy/USA, w. Hiam Abbass, Freida Pinto, Willem Dafoe, Vanessa Redgrave, Alexander Siddig, Stella Schnabel
- Noi credevamo, d. Mario Martone (L'odore del sengue), Italy/France, w. Luigi Lo Cascio, Toni Servillo
- Norwegian Wood, d. Tran Anh Hung, Japan, w. Rinko Kikuchi
- La passione, d. Carlo Mazzacurati (La lingua del santo), Italy, w. Stefania Sandrelli
- La pecora nera, d. Ascanio Celestini, Italy, w. Maya Sansa
- Post mortem, d. Pablo Larraín, Chile/Mexico/Germany
- Potiche, d. François Ozon, France/Belgium, w. Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Judith Godrèche, Jérémie Renier
- Promises Written in Water, d. Vincent Gallo, USA, w. Gallo
- Road to Nowhere, d. Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop), USA, w. Shannyn Sossamon, Dominique Swain, John Diehl, Fabio Testi
- Silent Souls, d. Aleksei Fedorchenko (First on the Moon), Russia
- La solitudine dei numeri primi [The Solitude of Prime Numbers], d. Saverio Costanzo (In Memory of Me), Italy/France/Germany, w. Filippo Timi, Isabella Rossellini
- Somewhere, d. Sofia Coppola, USA, w. Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Benicio del Toro, Michelle Monaghan, Benicio Del Toro
- Vénus noire [Black Venus], d. Abdellatif Kechiche, France/Italy/Belgium, w. Olivier Gourmet

Out of competition, you'll find directorial efforts from both the Affleck brothers. The elder will follow his well-received (but, still, not that good) Gone Baby Gone with The Town, a crime thriller about a Boston-area gang of thieves. Casey's directorial debut is I'm Still Here, a documentary that received a lot of press last year which follows Joaquin Phoenix's retirement from acting to pursue a career as a rapper. In addition to 13 Assassins, Takashi Miike's Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City will premiere, likely as part of the festival's midnight screenings, which will open with Robert Rodriguez's star-and-"star"-studded Machete. Julie Taymor's return to Shakespeare, The Tempest, will close this portion. Below you'll find a selection of the films playing out of competition.

- 1960, d. Gabriele Salvatores (I'm Not Scared), Italy
- The Child's Eye 3D, d. Oxide Pang, Danny Pang, Hong Kong/China
- I'm Still Here, d. Casey Affleck, USA, w. Joaquin Phoenix
- The Last Movie, d. Dennis Hopper, USA, w. Hopper, Tomas Milian, Samuel Fuller, Sylvia Miles, Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, Henry Jaglom, John Phillip Law, Michelle Phillips, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn, Toni Basil
- Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, d. Andrew Lau, Hong Kong/China, w. Donnie Yen, Shu Qi
- A Letter to Elia, d. Martin Scorsese, Kent Jones, USA
- Lope, d. Andrucha Waddington (House of Sand), Spain/Brazil, w. Leonor Watling, Pilar López de Ayala, Sonia Braga, Luis Tosar
- Machete, d. Robert Rodriguez, USA, w. Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, Jeff Fahey, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Rose McGowan, Tom Savini
- Passione, d. John Turturro, Italy
- Přežít svůj život [Surviving Life], d. Jan Švankmajer, Czech Republic/Slovakia
- Raavanan, d. Mani Ratnam, India, w. Aishwarya Rai
- Reign of Assassins, d. John Woo, Su Chao-Bin, China/Hong Kong/Taiwan, w. Michelle Yeoh, Kelly Lin
- Shock Labyrinth 3D, d. Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on), Japan
- Showtime, d. Stanley Kwan (Lan yu), China, w. Carina Lau, Tony Leung Ka-Fai
- Sorelle mai, d. Marco Bellocchio, Italy
- The Tempest, d. Julie Taymor, USA, w. Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, Alfred Molina, Alan Cumming, Ben Whishaw
- That Girl in Yellow Boots, d. Anurag Kashyap (Dev.D), India
- The Town, d. Ben Affleck, USA, w. Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively
- Vallanzasca - Gli angeli del male, d. Michele Placido (Romanzo criminale), Italy/France, w. Kim Rossi Stuart, Filippo Timi, Moritz Bleibtreu, Paz Vega
- Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City, d. Takashi Miike, Japan

The Horizons portion of this year's selection will open with La belle endormie [Sleeping Beauty], another fairy tale adaptation from Catherine Breillat following last year's Barbe Bleue; like its predecessor, La belle endormie was produced by Arte Télévision and employs a cast of unknowns. Hong Sang-soo's Oki's Movie will close the section; Oki's Movie is Hong Sang-soo's second film to premiere in 2010 following Ha Ha Ha, which was awarded the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes in May. Not a whole lot of information was available about the rest of the films (some of them shorts), but I listed below the films from directors I knew. And following that is a selection of the films screening as part of the Venice Days, one of the festival's autonomous sidebars.

Horizons

- The Agent, d. Vincent Gallo, USA, w. Sage Stallone, Gallo
- La belle endormie [Sleeping Beauty], d. Catherine Breillat, France
- Better Life, d. Isaac Julien, UK/China, w. Maggie Cheung
- Cold Fish, d. Sion Sono, Japan
- Guest, d. José Luis Guerin, Spain
- The Leopard, d. Isaac Julien, UK/Italy
- A Loft, d. Ken Jacobs, USA
- News from Nowhere, d. Paul Morrissey, USA
- Oki's Movie, d. Hong Sang-soo, South Korea
- Painéis de São Vicente de Fora, Visão Poética, d. Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal, w. Ricardo Trêpa
- Red Earth, d. Clara Law, Hong Kong/China

Venice Days

- L'amour buio, d. Antonio Capuano (Luna rossa), Italy, w. Valeria Golino
- Le bruit des glaçons [The Clink of Ice], d. Bertrand Blier (Beau-père), France, w. Jean Duhardin, Albert Dupontel
- Cirkus Columbia, d. Danis Tanović (No Man's Land), Bosnia & Herzegovina/France/UK/Slovenia/Germany/Belgium/Serbia, w. Miki Manojlović, Mira Furlan
- Hitler à Hollywood [Hitler in Hollywood], d. Frédéric Sojcher, w. Maria de Medeiros, Micheline Presle
- Incendies, d. Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique), Canada/France, w. Lubna Azabal
- Noir océan, d. Marion Hänsel (The Quarry), w. Adrien Joliver
- La vida de los peces, d. Matías Bize (En la cama), Chile, w. Santiago Cabrera, Blanca Lewin

The Decade List: (Some of) The Worst Films (2006)

I've been using the IMDb as a reference for film years when compiling films for the Decade List, and while I realize the site isn't always correct, it's a lot easier than looking elsewhere to find the first official screening of Phat Girlz. However, I've run into my first altercation when using the IMDb for 2006. By their records, 300, easily one of the worst films I've ever seen, is a 2006 movie because it played at something called the Austin Butt-Numb-a-Thon in December of that year. I don't know anything about this "fest," but I'm going to go ahead and disqualify that as a legitimate "film premiere." Black Snake Moan falls under the same category.

Anyway, I have little to say about the films below, but I've included links to shit I've written on them in the past. I've placed an asterisk next to the films that have a special sort of "awful" appeal, failures of a certain charm. I haven't given all of those titles a second look to gauge their level of camp appeal, but I can assure you both Snow Cake and Notes on a Scandal rise to the occasion. Cate Blanchett asking Judi Dench, "You wanna fuck me, Barbara?" and Sigourney Weaver's hilarious performance as a woman with autism in Snow Cake (not to mention how many bad-ass points Alan Rickman lost with his schoolgirl fussiness after confronting the man who killed Sigourney's daughter) are absolutely worth wasting your time over.

- Alpha Dog - d. Nick Cassavetes - USA
- Another Gay Movie - d. Todd Phillips - USA
- Art School Confidential - d. Terry Zwigoff - USA [also here]
- Basic Instinct 2 - d. Michael Caton-Jones - USA/Germany/UK/Spain [also here]
- The Black Dahlia - d. Brian De Palma - USA/Germany [also an appendix; and here]
- Boy Culture - d. Q. Allan Brocka - USA
- Broken Sky [El cielo dividido] - d. Julián Hernández - Mexico
- The Bubble - d. Eytan Fox - Israel [Winner of the "Best Way to Revive Your Otherwise Awful Film" Award at my first, and only, Fin de cinéma awards]
- Cars - d. John Lasseter, Joe Ranft - USA
- Confetti - d. Debbie Isitt - UK
- Cowboy Junction - d. Gregory Christian - USA
- Dans Paris - d. Christophe Honoré - France/Portugal
- Dirty Sanchez: The Movie - d. Jim Hickey - UK
- Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds - d. Phillip J. Bartell - USA
- Eternal Summer - d. Leste Chen - Taiwan
- Factory Girl - d. George Hickenlooper - USA
- For Your Consideration - d. Christopher Guest - USA [also here]
- The Fountain - d. Darren Aronofsky - USA*
- Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus - d. Steven Shainberg - USA
- Grimm Love [Rohtenburg] - d. Martin Weisz - Germany
- The Hills Have Eyes - d. Alexandre Aja - USA
- Idlewild - d. Bryan Barber - USA
- Marie Antoinette - d. Sofia Coppola - USA/France/Japan
- Murderous Intent [Like Minds] - d. Gregory J. Read - Australia/UK
- The Namesake - d. Mira Nair - India/USA
- Notes on a Scandal - d. Richard Eyre - UK*
- O Jerusalem - d. Elie Chouraqui - France/UK/Italy/Greece/Israel/USA [also here]
- Off the Black - d. James Ponsoldt - USA
- The OH in Ohio - d. Billy Kent - USA [also here]
- On ne devrait pas exister [We Should Not Exist] - d. Hervé P. Gustave - France
- One Third - d. Kim Yong-man - USA
- The Page Turner [La tourneuse de pages] - d. Denis Dercourt - France
- Phat Girlz - d. Nnegest Likké - USA
- Psychopathia Sexualis - d. Bret Wood - USA
- The Pursuit of Happyness - d. Gabriele Muccino - USA
- Snow Cake - d. Marc Evans - Canada/UK* [more on Sigourney]
- Southland Tales - d. Richard Kelly - USA/Germany/France*
- Tan Lines - d. Ed Aldridge - Australia
- Things to Do - d. Ted Bezaire - Canada
- The Tripper - d. David Arquette - USA
- The Unknown Woman [La sconosciuta] - d. Giuseppe Tornatore - Italy/France*
- Vacationland - d. Todd Verow - USA
- The West Wittering Affair - d. David Scheinmann - UK
- The Wicker Man - d. Neil LaBute - USA/Germany/Canada*
- The Wild - d. Steve 'Spaz' Williams - USA
- The Young, the Gay and the Restless - d. Joe Castro - USA
- Yours Emotionally! - d. Sridhar Rangayan - India/UK

Let her choke on cake...

Marie Antoinette - dir. Sofia Coppola - 2006 - USA/Japan/France

Though reportedly booed at its Cannes premiere, Marie Antoinette found a safer home in its homeland of the United States where it was welcomed much more positively than the country where it was set. It’s questionable whether its warmer response in the United States had to do with less vicious critics, low expectations, or that the necessity of Sofia Coppola’s voice outweighed the mess that was her film. The world of cinema has long been a realm of big dicks, a patriarchy where women belonged in front of the camera as opposed to behind it. Historically there have been few female filmmakers to make any impact; Agnès Varda was the sole female director of the Nouvelle Vague, and Lina Wertmüller was the first female director to be nominated for a Best Director Academy Award. Only within the past twenty or so years has a strikingly feminine voice emerged with the likes of Jane Campion, Allison Anders, Claire Denis, Mira Nair, Susanne Bier, Mary Harron, Deepa Mehta, and Catherine Breillat. Certain female directors, like Breillat, are focused on femininity and the differences between men and women, but few would call her films humanistic. However fascinating, humanism appears replaced by analytical gender theory in the works of Breillat. Coppola, who became famous with her Oscar win for Lost in Translation, supplied a much needed voice of not only femininity, but of feminine youth. Though she cites inspiration from Antonioni and Godard, her voice comes from a different perspective: the questioning young woman. In theory, Marie Antoinette should have been her perfect subject for this perspective, but in theory, Marie Antoinette should have also been a good movie. Instead, it’s a royal mess, a gaudy head-scratcher so painfully uneven and misconceived that you wonder how Coppola rounded out such an impressive cast.

As Marie, Kirsten Dunst, the dreamy-looking star of Coppola’s first feature The Virgin Suicides, approaches her subject appropriately, like a wide-eyed, confused young woman thrown into power at an unacceptable age. Two nations’ alliance sits atop her shoulders as her mother (Marianne Faithfull) frequently mentions in letters. Yet Coppola, on the surface, isn’t so much concerned with historical accuracies of the young queen of France as she has so often stated in interviews. Marie Antoinette was conceived as a human portrait of a girl thrown into power, attempting to mix her sexual and personal blossoming with the weight of her reign. In moments, Coppola does a blissful job. Masquerade balls, champagne-soaked birthday parties, and the trying on of dresses and shoes, to a modern soundtrack of course, all work as intended, as whimsical, frivolous depictions of affluent girlhood. However, when countered with seemingly unnecessary historical events that timidly cut these sequences apart, Coppola’s perspective becomes murky. She’s wholly unaware of what Marie Antoinette, as a film, is, which is much more grave an offense than her and Dunst not really knowing who Marie is as a woman. The dizziness of youth and displacement arrive in varying forms, both repetitiously structured and Virgin Suicides-esque dreamlike sequences. Historical events, such as the death of the king, the birth of Marie’s babies, and the revolution of America, serve simply as a time line, none of which ever having that great of an effect on the film itself and come in an array of bizarre announcements. It’s as lousy and unnecessary a biopic as Ray or Walk the Line, but is it a biopic? Coppola is as unsure as we are. The film is based solely on one person’s writings about Marie, which depicts her as more of a human being than the other writings Coppola found. However, we know Marie about as well as we know the film; that is to say, not very well.

One could probably make a check-list of all the things that Coppola does wrong here. Her use of contemporary punk and electronic music sound good on paper if she didn’t just use most of them as filler. Only The Cure’s “All Cats Are Grey” and Gang of Four’s “Natural’s Not In,” which is reminiscent of her usage of Heart’s “Crazy on You” in The Virgin Suicides, are properly used. Her bizarre casting also sounds fun on paper, if only she didn’t use her cast like set pieces. From Rip Torn as the King of France to Asia Argento as his mistress and Faithfull as Marie’s mother, not a single member of the cast live up to their potential, especially as characters begin to disappear throughout the film as if Coppola forgot them on the cutting room floor. In scope, Marie Antoinette is Coppola’s most ambitious project, so it’s no surprise that she falls on her face with it. After viewing the film, it’s hard not to ponder why she made this film, and most importantly, why she needed it be about Marie Antoinette. Coppola’s voice is a viable one, and perhaps the success of Lost in Translation placed too high a burden on her expectations. Either way, I think the guillotine is in order somewhere.

Questions and thoughts for the closing of a year

Is Godard's Histoire(s) du cinema his masterpiece? And will it ever become available in the United States?

If you are one of those people who voted for Miami Vice as one of the worst films of the year on the Internet Movie Database, you're a moron.

With Marie Antoinette and The Fountain, Sofia Coppola and Darren Aronofsky, despite their solid fan bases, have joined the ranks of Todd Solondz in "Third time is not a charm for American indie darling "auteur."'

The theme song for My Super Ex-Girlfriend, which contains the lyrics "the only super power here is love," is easily the worst song created for a film since... well, didn't Phil Collins do the soundtrack to the Tarzan sequel?

Little Miss Sunshine should have been the forgettable "indie" sleeper of the year that we'll forget about next year (à la My Big Fat Greek Wedding), but there's something that's a bit more meaningful about the film to casually dismiss it like this.

Macy Gray should be in every film... ever.

Will Richard Kelly's supposedly disastrous Southland Tales actually come out in April of next year as planned or will it sit around until 2008, the year the film is set?

The absurdity of a film like Big Momma's House 2 making $30 million at the box office on opening weekend must end.

Shut the fuck up about Snakes on a Plane.

When will another artful black auteur emerge to wipe clean the bad taste in my mouth of Tyler Perry?

Even though I wasn't wild about the film, Brokeback Mountain lost the best picture Oscar because Hollywood still hates fags when they're not dying of AIDS or being void of sexuality. And Crash will go down in history as the worst Best Picture winner of all-time.

Daniel Craig and Eva Green are sexy.

Bryan Singer made the biggest mistake of his career letting Brett Ratner direct X-Men 3 and moving onto Superman Returns.

We will feel the death of Wellspring for a long time to come.

Paul Greengrass is one of the finest directors to come around this century.

Even though I haven't seen it, there is no way that The Departed is better than Infernal Affairs.

And finally, I'm in love with Penélope Cruz.

Three Months till 2007

I haven’t done a “coming soon to your theatre” post in a while, and I’m still pissed that Abel Ferrara’s Mary hasn’t found distribution yet. C’mon, it could so easily ride on the coattail of The DaVinci Code, and I wouldn’t mind.

First off, how can you resist a bunch of cute kids taking back America for Jesus? In Jesus Camp, these kids apparently want to be Billy Graham and attend a fun-filled Jesus Summer Camp. I always love patronizing Christians, so you’ll see me in line dressed as the Savior himself. I might also recommend Hell House for jaw-dropping, are-Christians-for-fucking-real laughs and squirms.

You can always count on Helen Mirren to give us a fine performance in The Queen; she did win the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival (but then again, so has Robin Tunney). More so, you can always count on Miramax to release an unnecessary biopic for Oscar season, even without the Weinsteins. Sure, Stephen Frears is sort-of respectable, but I’ll wait for video to see the ravishing Mirren play her second Queen Elizabeth of the year.

Gus Van Sant has yet again produced a young gay boy’s coping with sexuality à la Tarnation. This one’s called Wild Tigers I Have Known and is the first feature by Cam Archer, who’s made several shorts prior. I think I’ll skip this one too.

One film I certainly will not skip is John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus, which looks to be stellar. ThinkFilm knew what they were doing to get me in the seat when they used the quote, “Like Woody Allen’s Manhattan, only with money shots.” The film stars Sook-Yin Lee, whom you might remember as Kwahng-Yi from Hedwig. She’s also a Canadian television personality who almost lost her job because of the film. Thankfully, Yoko Ono, Michael Stipe, and Francis Ford Coppola (surprise) came to her aid and defended her artistic expression. You can see the uncensored trailer, finally, at www.shortbusthemovie.com.

Certainly one of the big Oscar baiters, Todd Field’s follow-up to his critically-acclaimed In the Bedroom (I really only liked the film for Sissy, but whatever), Little Children, comes out in October. The film stars Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, and Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy) and, as long as it doesn’t turn out to be as horrible as Winslet’s other film this year, All the King’s Men, will likely run off with several nominations.

Ryan Murphy, creator of such deliciously appealing television shows as Popular and Nip/Tuck, will take his first time directing in an adaptation of Augusten Burroughs’ Running with Scissors. The poster blows, and I hate Annette Bening, but with support from the always-reliable Brian Cox, I may be able to stomach her.

I’ve said enough about Sofia and the sure-to-be-failure of Marie Antoinette, so just take note it comes out on the 20th of October.

As someone who strongly disliked 21 Grams and was passively unimpressed with Amores perros, you can bet I’m not really looking forward to Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel, which won him the Best Director prize at Cannes. It sounds nauseatingly a lot like Crash, so beware.

After a several month delay, Pedro’s Volver is opening on the 3rd of November in New York and L.A. I’ve said plenty about this one, too, so just expect a full review once it comes to Saint Louis. Pedro apparently tried to make Ms. Cruz look as much like Sofia Loren as possible.

Also on the 3rd, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan will be released nationwide. Borat, one of Cohen’s three characters from Da Ali G Show, is a Jew-hating, sex-obsessed television star with poor English skills. The film apparently features some wonderful tea-bagging, so prepare to have a good ol’ time at the movies.

Yeah, I’m not happy Nicole Kidman is playing Diane Arbus either, and I may be even less happy that Steven Sheinberg (Secretary) is directing the dreadful-looking biopic Fur: An Imaginay Portrait of Diane Arbus. The film also stars Ty Burrell (Dawn of the Dead, Friends with Money) and Robert Downey, Jr.

ThinkFilm will be releasing the documentary Fuck (or, F*ck) on the 10th. The documentary, about the origins and offensiveness of the word, features Kevin Smith, Ron Jeremy, Alanis Morrissette, Janeane Garofalo, Billy Connolly, and Bill Mahr, to name a few. Let’s hope this film is a bit more enlightening than that dud, The Aristocrats.

Also from ThinkFilm, the sudsy, druggy romance Candy will be out in New York on the 17th of November. The Australian film stars Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish (Somersault), and Geoffrey Rush.

Count me out, despite my love for Hugh Jackman, on Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream follow-up, The Fountain. Critics hated it at Toronto, and chances are: I’ll hate it too. The film also stars Aronofsky’s wife, Rachel Weisz.

Christopher Guest returns with his usual crew (Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, etc), in addition to The Office’s Ricky Gervais, with For Your Consideration, another mockumentary about a group of actors putting on a play.

Naomi Watts will star in the Greta Garbo role in We Don’t Live Here Anymore director John Curran’s remake of The Painted Veil. I’m expecting plenty of crying from Watts, who’s slowly taking the crying trophy away from Julianne Moore. The film also stars Liev Schrieber and Edward Norton.

And speaking of Julianne Moore, she will star in Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men, a science fiction film about a woman who becomes pregnant despite procreation being a thing of the past. Clive Owen, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Peter Mullan also star.

And, what better way to spend Christmas than with Beyoncé playing herself… I mean, Diana Ross… I mean “Deena Jones,” the lead singer of a three girl pop group, in Dreamgirls. So far, it looks to be the only musical this Christmas season, and with Idlewild doing poorly, I doubt we’ll see a whole lot more coming our way.

Finally, Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (El laberinto del Fauno) will have a limited release before the new year, possibly in hopes for Oscar consideration, though I doubt a fantasy horror film will have a good chance. From the looks of the other releases this year, who knows? It’s supposed to be his best film since Cronos.

Your Neon Lights Will Shine

Sofia Coppola is public enemy number 1. I was masturbating and laughing reading all the negative reviews of her upcoming Marie Antoinette, when I stumbled across the soundtrack listing, which rendered me cold. That bitch. Why does she have to have such impecable taste in music and make such mediocre films? The track listing (or at least the music from the film) is as follows (I'm not including the classical music she used):


"Natural's Not In It" - Gang of Four
"I Don't Like It Like This" - The Radio Dept.
"Jynweythek Ylow" - Aphex Twin
"Pulling Our Weight" - The Radio Dept.
"Il Secondo Giorno Instrumental" - Air
"Keen on Boys" - The Radio Dept.
"I Want Candy (Kevin Shields Remix)" - Bow Wow Wow / Kevin Shields (uhhhh...?)
"Hong Kong Garden" - Siouxsie and the Banshees (fuck!)
"Aphrodisiac" - Bow Wow Wow
"Fools Rush In (Kevin Shields Remix)" - Bow Wow Wow / Kevin Shields
"Plainsong" - The Cure
"Ceremony" - New Order
"Tommib Help Buss" - Squarepusher
"Kings of the Wild Frontier" - Adam Ant & the Ants
"Avril 14th" - Aphex Twin
"What Ever Happened?" - The Strokes
"All Cats Are Grey" - The Cure (is this some weird Valley of the Dolls reference?)

The Radio Dept., a Swedish rock band, is apparently the band she's pimping here ("Keen on Boys" is sublime). You can see an uninteresting video for their wonderful song "Where Damage Isn't Already Done" here via YouTube. At least, New Order's "Age of Consent" which is featured in the trailer, won't be in the film. Apparently this plus a bunch of IDM (I fucking hate the name of the genre, but I think Squarepusher/Aphex Twin music should be in a category of its own) is how she sees the French Revolution. And I bet that bitch matches the images well with it. So on this note, here's a couple other amazing soundtracks to films of varying quality (if you know me, these choices will probably be a bit obvious).


Stephin Merritt's music lends itself beautifully to Pieces of April, a film I tried not to see and then, after hearing Merritt did the soundtrack, tried not to like. Surprisingly, I liked the film a lot -- and not surprisingly, I dug the soundtrack. I haven't seen Eban and Charley, nor do I plan to, but the soundtrack is equally as wonderful. On Pieces of April, he's credited alone, with The Magnetic Fields and his side-project The 6ths (his other side-project Future Bible Heroes doesn't make an appearance, though could you really tell that much of a difference?). "Maria, Maria, Maria" and "The Little Ukelele" off Eban are strongly recommended.

Like Merritt, Lou Barlow's soundtrack to Larry Clark's Kids features various incarnations of him. Most of the songs are attributed to his Folk Imposion, which garnered a hit out of "Natural One," but it's Sebadoh's (Barlow, again) "Spoiled" that's the highlight here and the film's stark, bleak closer. The song wonderfully puts perspective into the film, making you forget, seeing Casper on the couch naked and vacant before the credits go by, Clark's irresponsible sensationalism. Though I don't remember it in the film, Slint's "Good Morning, Captain" off their Spiderland and two Daniel Johnston songs are the non-Barlow tracks.

1. Can - I Want More
2. Aphex Twin - Goon Gumpas
3. Boards of Canada - Everything You Do Is a Balloon
4. Can - Spoon
5. Stereolab - Blue Milk
6. The Velvet Underground - I'm Sticking with You
7. Broadcast - You Can Fall
8. Gamelan Drumming
9. Holger Czukay - Cool in the Pool
10. Lee 'Scratch' Perry - Hold of Death
11. Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra - Hold of Death
12. Ween - Japanese Cowboy
13. Holger Czukay - Fragrance
14. Aphex Twin - Nannou

Though missing the final song in the film, The Mamas and the Papas' "Dedicated to the One I Love," Lynne Ramsay's soundtrack to Morvern Callar works on levels much more thoughtful than your typical compilation soundtrack. The music works as a plot device, the last present given to Morvern (Samantha Morton), by her dead boyfriend. I would have probably preferred that the soundtrack be entirely the mix tape; the Holger Czukay songs are used during parties Morvern attends and are not on the mix, though his band Can is. Yet it all works beautifully both within the film and, though to a slightly lesser extent, in your CD player.

Lost Highway is probably the only Lynch soundtrack that isn't totally consisting of Angelo Badalamenti's score, though he shows up a lot here, along with Trent Reznor who co-produced this (Nine Inch Nails' "The Perfect Drug" was the big hit off this album). And while certain music was completely of its time (would Lynch really want to use Rammstein in another of his films?), it still makes for moody (surprise) excellence. Some of the highlights are The Smashing Pumpkins' "Eye," Marilyn Manson's weirdly wonderful cover of "I Put a Spell on You," Lou Reed's "This Magic Moment," and David Bowie's "I'm Deranged," which is featured in the opening credit sequence. Naturally, I'd also recommend the soundtracks to Twin Peaks, Fire Walk with Me, Mulholland Drive, and The Straight Story. NOTE: Though used in the film, This Mortal Coil's "Song to the Siren," which Lynch wanted to use in Blue Velvet during the scene where Kyle Maclachlan dances with Laura Dern at the party, is not on here.

I'm a little biased in that Gregg Araki and I have even closer taste in music than Sofia. Mysterious Skin is a bit different, as its not a soundtrack as much as it is the score for the film composed by minimalist Harold Budd and Cocteau Twins' guitarist Robin Guthrie. Sure, the soundtracks for all his other films are awesome, but Mysterious Skin stands on its own as a work of art comperable to the film itself. Here's a list of the (awesome) songs featured in the film, but not on the soundtrack, in case you're wondering:

Slowdive - Golden Hair (a Syd Barrett cover)
Curve - Galaxy
Slowdive - Catch the Breeze
The Cocteau Twins - Crushed
Slowdive - Dagger
Ride - Drive Blind
Sigur Rós - Samskeyti

1. Hoover - 2 Wicky
2. Portishead - Glory Box
3. Axiom Funk - If 6 Was 9
4. John Lee Hooker - Annie Mae
5. Liz Phair - Rocket Boy
6. Stevie Wonder - Superstition
7. Nina Simone - My Baby Just Cares for Me
8. Billie Holiday - I'll Be Seeing You
9. Mazzy Star - Rhymes of an Hour
10. The Cocteau Twins - Alice
11. Lori Carson - You Won't Fall
12. Sam Phillips - I Need Love

Really the only thing going for Stealing Beauty was the visual landscape of the film and the music that accompanied it. Liv Tyler was remarkably unappealing as the American virgin out to come of age in Tuscany (where better?). The soundtrack mixes the music of a rebellious teenage girl (Liz Phair's "Rocket Boy" is perfect here, though Hole's "Rock Star" is not present on the soundtrack), mood setters ("Alice," "Glory Box," and "2 Wicky"), and the music of a man reflecting upon youth (Simone, Holiday, Wonder).

Like Mysterious Skin, the soundtrack to demonlover has a score from highly influential post-rockers; here, it's Sonic Youth. I find myself listening to this a lot, even though I'd imagine it to be even too sparce for most people to get into, outside of the film.



Don't think I'm just trying too hard to push hip soundtracks from movies I like. For the sake of redundancy, I didn't mention the soundtracks to Buffalo '66 and The Brown Bunny, though, as you can guess, I recommend them highly. I omitted some brilliant soundtracks, like Purple Rain and (of course) Xanadu, simply because they're musicals... and everyone knows how great they are (well, in the case of Xanadu, they should: c'mon, Gene Kelly, Olivia Newton-John, and ELO! on rollerskates). And you better believe I'm fucking excited about the Outkast musical, Idlewild, in theatres next month.