Jane Fonda shows up so infrequently in movies these days that it doesn’t matter if they look potentially good or dismal: Even when the performances (not to mention the movies around them) don’t quite work, Fonda always gives you something to watch. That’s certainly true in Bruce Beresford’s Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, an aimless if good-natured picture that casts Fonda in the role of a Woodstock-dwelling, ugly-art-making hippie-dippie mom who welcomes her estranged and very uptight daughter – played by Catherine Keener – back into her mother-earth arms. Her goal: To get her offspring, and her offspring’s offspring, to loosen up and start getting it on.
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As part of their 100th anniversary, Universal Studios has just released a commemorative Blu-Ray edition of Smokey and the Bandit. Today, the 35-year old Burt Reynolds vehicle is mostly remembered for Reynolds' good ol' boy schtick, Jackie Gleason's mugging and first-time director Hal Needham's stuntwork. Unfortunately, while Needham's contributions to Smokey are probably the most essential, he remains the least renowned of that bunch. But thanks to the behind the scenes featurette included on Universal's new release, laypeople and stuntwork junkies alike can get a good idea of why Smokey and the Bandit belongs to Hal Needham.
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The Intouchables hits so many audience-pleasing buttons, meticulously and dutifully, that it ought to be called The Irresistibles. This is the French movie you’ve been hearing about, a megahit in its native country and currently spreading across Europe like a cheerful, robust strain of flu. Based on a true story about a wheelchair-bound rich guy and his caretaker, a small-time crook from the projects, The Intouchables is a movie about life, love and the enduring power of Earth Wind & Fire. You have been forewarned.
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There's really nothing I can add to this video that hasn't already been captured on camera: The white-hot quasi-celeb vibe of the Bernie premiere in L.A., the vaguely arbitrary line of red-carpet questioning, the genius retort from MacLaine, Jack Black's exquisite repulsion, the hit-and-run brevity of it all... It just doesn't get much better. Sorry, Richard Dreyfuss!
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In what seems like a smart move for everyone involved, Disney has hired Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim, Shaun of the Dead) to direct Johnny Depp in The Night Stalker, a feature remake of the 1972 ABC made for TV movie of the same name and the series spin-off it inspired. The property follows reporter Carl Kolchak, whose investigations into criminal happenings lead him to all manner of supernatural villains; Depp will star as Kolchak, which sounds promising given Wright's proven track record in genre work, even if it feels like similar stories have come and gone of late with nary a blip (the Vegas-set, vampire-themed Fright Night remake, for one).
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Even though it's something of a slick mess, Madonna's W.E. is just the kind of movie you'd expect from an artist who once, with a delightful lack of irony, declared herself a material girl. A weirdly sympathetic portrait of Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom a king gave up his throne, W.E. is the story of a life told through stuff: Evening gloves, cocktail shakers, baubles from Cartier, little hats trimmed with netting. It's as if Madonna went back in time and forgot to talk to actual people, to find out how they lived and what they thought -- but she sure did a lot of shopping.
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Focus Features and the good folks at WNYC are going all out for first-time Oscar nominee Gary Oldman, lining up a six-film retrospective of the actor's work that will culminate Feb. 8 in Manhattan with a screening and Oldman Q&A for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The best part: It's free. Which naturally means you'd better act fast to reserve your seats.
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Park City did indeed turn out to be a robust marketplace this year, with buyers snapping up over two dozen features and docs out of Sundance 2012. Ranging from genre pleasers to indie charmers to potential future Oscar picks and beyond – and veering from critical fest duds to overwhelming crowd favorites – the class of Sundance ’12 is an intriguingly mixed-but-mostly-promising bag of films that will be dotting the cinematic landscape in the year or so to come. Here’s an updated comprehensive look at what sold and which films you should be looking forward to.
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Joe Carnahan’s thriller The Grey, currently receiving kudos for its blend of red-blooded action and considered existentialism, tells the fictional tale of a group of oilrig workers who survive a plane crash only to be hunted by wolves in the wild. Among the ragtag band of comrades facing off against nature under Liam Neeson’s steady leadership is Dermot Mulroney’s Talget, who, like the others, learns to shed his protective layers and confront his own fears when forced to face off directly with Mother Nature.
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It’s so hard to find a reasonably enjoyable thriller these days that anything with a marginally intriguing premise and fewer than 10 plot holes has come to seem like a minor miracle. Man on a Ledge might have been that kind of modest miracle: Sam Worthington stars as Nick Cassidy, a pissed-off ex-cop who’s been convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Somehow – and the whole of Man on a Ledge deals with the whys and wherefores of that somehow – he springs himself from Sing Sing, suits up in some phenomenally nice-looking threads, and checks himself (under an assumed name) into a room on one of the upper floors of a midtown Manhattan luxury hotel. After a room-service breakfast of champagne, lobster and French fries, he creeps out onto the ledge and greets the cops who respond to the call with some very specific demands.
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It takes at least two things to make a terrific documentary: A great subject and a light but deft touch. Susanne Rostock’s Sing Your Song, which traces the career of Harry Belafonte with a specific focus on the singer and actor’s social activism, certainly has the former -- it’s the latter that’s lacking. But if nothing else, Sing Your Song works as a testament to Belafonte’s drive and dedication to causes well outside the usual goals of simply making money. If you don’t know much about Belafonte beyond the fact that he was that great-looking guy who had a hit in the '50s with “The Banana Boat Song,” Rostock’s documentary is as good a place as any to start.
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I don't care if you're sick of Zooey Deschanel's adorkable omnipresence, or if you've seen 400 videos already of Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing some song or another for his HitRECordJoe community. It's nigh on the new year and this video of the (500) Days of Summer co-stars dueting Nancy Wilson's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" is just too cute, dammit! Give in to the twanging twee twosome and start planning your midnight kiss.
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Thank you, Baby Jesus, for the blessed month of December 2011, because it's given me the greatest gift of all: Sinead O'Connor's renewed relevance. The Irish singer was married less than three weeks ago to drugs counselor Barry Herridge, and already she's releasing cryptic press statements about the reasons they're divorcing. I guess marijuana is part of it? And a courtship that felt like "living in a coffin"? I don't know. But I do know that Sinead O'Connor's most hilariously bizarre moment has nothing to do with quickly nuptials -- it has to do with a 1997 film in which she played a foul-mouthed Virgin Mary. Know it?
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The Library of Congress today announced an eclectic batch of new inductees into the National Film Registry for 2011, ranging from no-brainers (Charlie Chaplin's The Kid) to fantastic finds (the 1930s-era Nicholas Brothers Family Home Movies). And also: Silence of the Lambs! Forrest Gump! ... El Mariachi? Which of these 25 newly anointed selections, to be preserved on account of their cultural, historical or aesthetic significance, is the most surprising addition?
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Oprah Winfrey's 25 years as a daytime talk queen come to a close May 25, but instead of being sad, she wants you to reflect her on legacy by revisiting the movies and TV shows that best referenced her. Sleepless in Seattle and Talladega Nights make the cut, as well as cute clips from Wheel of Fortune, Saturday Night Live, and Will and Grace. Here's a good question: What did she leave out?
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