Movies

Fancy Dress

Not to be confused with Alicia SilverstoneI’d planned to post this over the weekend, but it got shunted aside by other stuff: It’s my latest Sympatico/MSN movie column, a gallery of contemporary actors who’ve given surprisingly convincing performances in period garb.

Sorry about the title, by the way. Couldn’t be helped.

Oh, and speaking of period pieces, have you caught the digital reissue of “The Godfather” yet? Here’s a piece I filed for the NOW website last Friday examining the whole theatrical-vs-DVD issue.

Just adding to the conversation …

Movies

Paul Newman

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Paul and Joanne with mystery guest… well, you know.

I discussed what little experience I had with Newman a couple of months ago, when the news first broke that he was ill.

There’s not much else to say, beyond this one thing: Paul Newman was one of only two people whom all three of my grandparents were ever impressed that I’d met. The other was Rod Steiger.

They’re all gone now.

Really, I got nothing else.

Movies, Pointless Personal Digressions

Word Up!

Generica!Do you like reading? Do you like reading words? Collected in books and magazines? Why, perhaps you’re reading something right now!

If reading sounds like something you might do, you should check out The Word on the Street Book & Magazine Festival, taking place this Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm at Queen’s Park. And if you’re there between one and two in the afternoon, stop by Booth #208, where I’ll be entertaining people — or at least talking to them about movies — under the NOW banner.

If I’m reading the map right, NOW’s booth will be up at the northeast section of Queen’s Park Circle. And if I’m reading the map wrong, well, I may be slightly late.

DVD, Movies

Another Friday, Another Flood

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Has anybody seen my gal?If you can’t bear the thought of staying home and watching the debate tonight, there’s plenty of things to see at your local megaplex … and none of them will grind you down with those nasty politics.

“Choke“: You know how “Fight Club” tanked on its theatrical release and spent a couple of years under the radar before it resurfaced as an overlooked masterpiece and finally found its audience? Yeah, well, this latest Chuck Palahniuk adaptation — starring Sam Rockwell as a sex addict suffering an identity crisis — isn’t going to be that lucky.

“Eagle Eye”: Ordinary folks Shia LaBoeuf and Michelle Monaghan receive mysterious messages that are either out to save their lives, or frame them as terrorists and send them to horrible violent deaths. Or something. If this was an M. Night Shyamalan movie, it would turn out that they were really mice running around a maze. But it’s a DJ Caruso movie, which probably means everything turns out okay. Adam was unimpressed.

“The Godfather”: Paramount drops its new restoration of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece into theaters three days after the new DVDs of the trilogy hit the street. Imagine experiencing that movie in a theater without print damage. I suspect it would be bliss. (Or you could just stay home and watch the Blu-ray disc.)

“The Lucky Ones“: You know how people say they’d watch certain actors in anything? Well, I used to feel that way about Tim Robbins and Rachel McAdams, and then I saw Neil Burger’s inane road movie about three Iraq War veterans — Michael Pena’s the other one — bumbling their way to redemption along the most obvious path imaginable. And now I don’t feel that way any more.

“Miracle at St. Anna”: Spike Lee’s WWII epic — apparently made as a corrective to “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Saving Private Ryan” — is two and three-quarter hours long, so I wasn’t able to catch it during the festival. (Anything over 100 minutes presents massive scheduling challenge.) Jason seems to validate all my apprehensions, so I’ll wait for the Oscar screener.

“Nights in Rodanthe“: Richard Gere and Diane Lane — who starred in “The Cotton Club” and “Unfaithful” — reunite for a completely empty tale of late-life love in this insipid trifle from director George C. Wolfe, who is apparently a big deal in the theater, but ain’t worth squat on celluloid. But Gere wears the most buttery brown suede jacket, and there are horses.

“Patti Smith: Dream of Life”: Speaking of horses — rock joke! — it feels like I’ve been chasing Steven Sebring’s documentary profile of the musical legend forever, and now it’s playing a ten-minute walk from my house. Result! Susan and Damian (whom I met during TIFF and seems like a very nice person) both speak very highly of it.

“Tell No One“: Made two years ago and already released on DVD earlier this year, Guillaume Canet’s smart, twisty thriller finally scores a theatrical release up here after a successful run in the States. Totally worth your time, even if you settle for the DVD.

There, I think that’s everything. And now I have to dive into everything else I have to write today …

Culture Shock

Because a President Can Only Do One Thing At a Time

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We'll all feel his pain, soon enoughI’ve been trying to avoid the serious political commentary lately, just because there’s so much other stuff to talk about — oh, and because Sarah Palin is enough of a joke already — but I just couldn’t pass this up:

In light of America’s whole being-on-fire financially thing, John McCain’s people are calling for a timeout on the campaign. That debate he was going to have with Barack Obama tomorrow night? He’d like to postpone it.

And the VP debate, in which Joe Biden will presumably reveal to the American people that Sarah Palin is the most woefully unqualified candidate for executive office since … um … ever? Maybe we should take a moment and think about putting that off, too.

Oh, but it’s okay — the first presidential debate can take the place of the VP debate, which will buy Palin a little more time to memorize those empty rah-rah talking points she spouts whenever anyone asks her a question that requires specifics.

Admittedly, it’s a time-honored tradition.

But it’s time for a change.

Movies

The Very Last TIFF ’08 Post, I Promise

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This is how I'll remember Bob -- tiny, but emphaticI know, I know, I’m sick of hearing about the film festival too.

But I’d be remiss if I didn’t provide this vastly entertaining round table featuring Adam (Nayman), Jason (Anderson), Mark (Peranson), Andrew (Tracy), Scott (Foundas) and Bob (Kohler), all hunkered down in an unidentified pub and talking about their TIFF experience for the Eye Weekly video page.

As with all conversations in bars, it gets more confrontational as it goes on, but in a good way.

I would have joined them, you know, but technically Eye’s podcasts and videos are forbidden territory for me these days. It’s funny; I appeared in that paper’s very first issues — there was a half-assed attempt to make me the television columnist — and I helped out with their TIFF coverage a couple of years ago when they needed someone at the last minute.

But now, when they all sit down for a convivial mid-TIFF discussion, I must walk away, an exile, piano music tinkling in the background like it does at the end of every episode of “The Incredible Hulk”.

I guess I’ll just have to make my own podcast thingie. That’ll show ’em …

DVD, Movies

This Is The Story of a Man Named Corleone …

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The kiss of death is followed immediately by the eating of brainsI’ve spent most of the weekend going through Paramount’s newly-remastered “Godfather” trilogy, and will be finishing that up today. So I’m a little busy.

Funny story, though: A few years ago, only half-kidding, I tried to cast a remake of the original film with present-day actors.

Think about it: Denis Leary as Sonny; Julianne Moore as Kay. Sofia Coppola, obviously, would play Connie. James Gandolfini as Clemenza. Alec Baldwin would have been a perfect Tom Hagen, though he’s a hair too old for the part now. (UPDATE: Will Arnett can step in, obviously.) Same for David Paymer as Fredo; who do you get now, Ralph Fiennes and Topher Grace?

Vito is a no-brainer; get Robert De Niro, put a little mustache on him, you’re good to go. That just leaves Michael, really … but Al Pacino owned that part from his very first frames. Who could possibly step in now?

At the time, I thought Jason Biggs would be suitably perverse casting. Now I’m thinking maybe we go even further outside the box. Russell Brand, from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”?

Or if we’re really shooting the works, how about Zachary Quinto from “Heroes”? The guy’s already played Spock, so we know he’s willing to step in to a role indelibly associated with another actor … now we just need to know whether he can play a Sicilian.

Movies

Hey, Look! Movies!

I do believe there is a Mugato among usNo sooner does TIFF wrap up than its movies come spilling out across our screens. “Appaloosa” opened on Wednesday, and today’s new arrivals include another Special Presentation title and a full-on Gala, as well as a Midnight Madness title from last year’s festival. (The last one is the source of today’s photo.)

Let’s get right to it, shall we?

“The Duchess”: As Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire and ancestor of another winsome blonde royal, Keira Knightley wears corsets and suffers exquisitely while Ralph Fiennes fumes about stuff and Hayley Atwell looks fetching. Yeah, it’s one of those. Adam was unimpressed.

“Ghost Town“: Ricky Gervais sees dead people, including a tuxedo-clad Greg Kinnear, but is really much more interested in his widow, played by Tea Leoni. David Koepp’s supernaturally tinged romantic comedy is actually much better than the marketing would have you believe.

“Igor”: John Cusack voices a plucky hunchback in this CG comedy that looks like something Henry Selick might have dreamed while working on “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. Dierdre thought it was okay, though.

“I Served the King of England”: A Czech waiter bears witness to history in Jiri Menzel’s political … comedy? Allegory? Either way, it looks all bright and charming and politically aware, and the guy who made it also made “Closely Watched Trains”. Andrew caught it, and liked it; I had to see “The Lucky Ones” instead. How ironic.

“Lakeview Terrace”: Neil Labute has a long way to go before we scrub “director of the infamously ridiculous ‘Wicker Man’ remake” from his bio, but apparently this yuppies-vs-psycho thriller is more than just a racially charged remake of “Unlawful Entry”. I guess anything’s possible. Barrett elaborates.

“My Best Friend’s Girl”: Jason Biggs and Dane Cook fight for the affections of Kate Hudson in this … wait, someone put Dane Cook and Kate Hudson, the twin quasars of prickly smugness, in the same movie? Shouldn’t that have created a black hole of charisma or something? Christ, we were lucky.

“Sukiyaki Western Django“: Takashi Miike tries to make the world’s most perverse Western — not in terms of sexual or violent content, just by having his Japanese cast learn all their English dialogue phonetically. At least the North American version is half an hour shorter than the director’s cut screened at TIFF last year, which nearly killed me.

That’s it for today, but don’t worry — there’s plenty on deck for next week, including Spike Lee’s longest picture since “Malcolm X” and a two-year-old French film that was released on DVD here nine months ago.

And I still haven’t seen “Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Adamantium Hip”. I feel like such a failure.

My other other gig.