Bea Arthur has died. A fixture of the stage and screen, yes. A formidable talk-show presence, certainly. Also, kind of a low-talker.
But as Adam Mathew (see comments below) pointed out last night, her true value may lie in her ability to inspire art — or, more specifically, the art of Brandon Bird.
Click the image above. It’s how I’ll always remember her.
I have to say, the marathon of spring festivals feels a lot like TIFF — there are fewer interviews, and I’m not seeing as many films theatrically, but that sense of a massive wall of obligations about to come crashing down on me at any moment? I’m so there.
So before I plunge back into the world of Hot Docs, here’s a rundown of this week’s theatrical releases …
“Earth”: Okay, it opened on Wednesday, but new is new. And more high-def nature footage from the “Planet Earth” people is always welcome … though it seems Disney felt it necessary to tone down that whole “red in tooth and claw” thing. Jason and Deirdre explain.
“Fighting”: Channing Tatum toughs up as a street-smart guy who, well, fights. A lot. Directed by Dito Monteil, who got great work from Tatum in “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” a few years back … but Andrew finds this project doesn’t offer him the same opportunities.
“Obsessed”: A whole bunch of TV faces — Idris Elba, Ali Larter, Jerry O’Connell — play out El Attraction Fatalico for the texting generation, or something. Apparently Beyonce plays the angry wife, but I swear I thought that was someone else in the trailer.
“Only“: Appropriately enough, Ingrid Veninger and Simon Reynolds’ delicate tale of one afternoon in the life of two isolated kids is playing just four days at the Royal Cinema, on an indie double-bill with “Production Office” (which Rad reviews here); if you have the chance, you should really catch it. It’s a fine, fine film.
“The Soloist“: Jamie Foxx gurns it up big-time as a schizophrenic virtuoso in Joe Wright’s big, button-pushing, fence-swinger at a movie — a film for people who thought “Shine” and “A Beautiful Mind” didn’t go big enough in elaborating upon the connection between genius and madness. Robert Downey, Jr. keeps his dignity, but doesn’t he always?
“Three Monkeys“: Opinions on Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s grim Turkish drama were split at Cannes, but I thought it was quite good — sure, it’s darker than his previous films, but that just means he’s making an effort not to make the same movie over and over again. And I think the darkness works for this particular film.
Right, that’s the blog done — now, back to the Wall of Reality!
The next few days are going to be a whirlwind of watching and writing, writing and watching. By my rough count, I’m down to review 34 movies at Hot Docs — that’s almost as many as I saw at Cannes last year. So you’ll forgive me if my posts seem somewhat hasty this weekend.
Anyway, here’s a quick festival preview, just to get you started. Don’t worry, the naked lady in tht one photo isn’t drowning … in fact, she’s kind of enjoying herself. And if you need a kitty chaser after that, just scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page.
You’re welcome.
… the one role that brings out Frank Langella’s best qualities as an actor, that is. “Frost/Nixon” and “The Wrestler” anchor this week’s Sympatico/MSN DVD column, now online for your perusing pleasure.
Short post today. Stuff to do. Sorry.
Over at the Film Freak Central blog, Bill Chambers has posted a sneak peek of the ingenious cover art for the next FFC annual.
Due out in July, it’s to be a double-sized edition that will combine the site’s reviews from 2007 and 2008, with additional never-before-published stuff. I await it eagerly, and will let y’all know as soon as it becomes available for pre-order. Unless it already is, in which case I expect someone will provide that information in the comments.
Oh, and speaking of friends publishing, dig this: Gwen Hyman, co-author of the most nourishing “Urban Italian“, gets her first solo spine next month with “Making a Man“. Perhaps you might consider pre-ordering that as well.
There’s no way this can be real — and nope, it isn’t — but it’s a fine way to start the week.
(Found on Andrew Sullivan’s blog.)
From CNN:
“Beneath an Antarctic glacier in a cold, airless pool that never sees the sun seems like an unusual place to search for life.”
You know why? Because it is. This is how the best horror movies start, with the glacier explorations and the teeny microbes that take over the hapless scientists and make with the homicidal madness or the genetic mutations or the chronic thingism.
Remember the crazy old guy warning everyone about the perils of messing with ancient natural deposits? He’s not always wrong. In fact, sometimes he’s the only one who really knows what’s going on.
And I don’t even want to mention the latest warning sign of the inevitable zombie apocalypse. But then, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.
Well, this is unexpected.
Engadget HD is reporting — and other sites are corroborating — the arrival of a multi-region Blu-ray player.
Which is to say, a machine that can be told to play any disc from anywhere in the world. You can set it to “Region 0” for standard DVDs, and a simple keypad hack will switch its BD configuration to Region A, B or C, and back again, when required.
This is a very good thing. There are plenty of Blu-ray discs available in the UK and Europe (which is Region B, to North America’s Region A) that have tempted me on my trips overseas … and which I’ve had to leave on the shelves due to the inflexibility of the PlayStation 3, which not only can’t be hacked but refuses to play region-free material if it’s encoded in PAL. That seems kind of dickish on the part of Sony’s engineers.
At just $349.99 USD, the Momitsu seems like a very good solution. It’ll replace the region-free Philips upconverter I’ve been using to play European and Australian discs, and add international BD functionality, letting me do my part in stimulating the global economy by snapping up a few Region B discs from various sources.
Sure, “Almost Famous” will make it to BD in North America eventually, but let’s be real; Paramount’s never going to bother with “Son of Rambow“, and there’s no way something like this is ever going to make it over here, either. So it’s a no-brainer.
It’s a smallish week for movie releases, providing a necessary breather for those of us trying to stay on top of everything — honestly, if there had been another ten openings this week, I suspect I might be on the top of a building with a rifle right now.
Lucky for everyone in my neighborhood, there were only five, and these are they:
“Crank: High Voltage”: It’s three months later, he’s not dead any more, and there are plenty of new people to kill. Also, Amy Smart is the best sport ever. Screened at the last possible minute, though I can’t imagine why.
“The Education of Charlie Banks“: Fred Durst’s directorial debut (yeah, “The Longshots” was released first, but produced after this one) explores the delicate relationship between a nervous preppie (Jesse Eisenberg, doing his Jesse Eisenberg thing) and the sociopath (Jason Ritter) who helps him learn about life. The “Raging Bull” poster in their dorm room? It’s a metaphor!
“17 Again”: Matthew Perry turns into Zac Efron, develops radically different bone structure, terrifies his family. I think. Rad liked it; Adam loathed it.
“State of Play”: Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck play a journalist and a politician with a thorny personal history in Kevin Macdonald’s Americanization of the acclaimed BBC miniseries; Adam found it well-meaning but sort of unnecessary.
“Sugar“: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s excellent American baseball movie — which isn’t a baseball movie at all, when you get right down to it — deserves the largest audience it can possibly get. So, sure, let’s call it a baseball movie. Whatever sells tickets.
Right, that’s this week covered. Now, back to the screener pile …
If the movie section of this week’s NOW feels a little frenetic, what with all the film festivals and everything, just imagine what it was like to spend two weeks watching all those Sprockets and Toronto Jewish Film Festival entries, looking for the good stuff. Because there was plenty of stuff that was, shall we say, less good.
My picks for the TJFF were “The Debt” (which is the source of today’s image) and “Run For Your Life“; my Sprockets piece is here.
Also worth a read, in my humble estimation: My interview with Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, whose “Sugar” is a major step forward for the duo after “Half Nelson”. Which was pretty good to begin with, mind you.