Upcoming 2013 Movies

[oscar jubis]

Yes, he does.

[Chris Knipp]

I liked PAN'S LABYRINTH best. Not my thing, but superior to everything else he's done, even THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE .

[tabuno]

As the title suggests, this is a science fiction movie about an exploration to the Jupiter moon Europa and has already been speculated about in 2010 (1984) this is another space version. The previews have the sharp Kubrick look, less of the mainstream popular polished 2010 movie version look. Whether or not the script can hold up to the technical look, remains to be seen.

[Chris Knipp]

Upcoming Strand Releasing films.

Comments: I've reviewed IL FUTURO as part of the SFIFF; a disappointment after her PLAY, which I loved. I'm curious to see ZAYTOUN. From what I've seen of them so far and heard so far I'm pretty sure I find these Seidl films unbearable and annoying; Oscar likes them or the first of them, very much, I believe. True, Oscar? But they are much discussed. I didn't previous know about the Irish one, whose Baltimore setting lends interest for me - my sister often goes to the Charles, the premier art house, I guess. The French gay film was much talked about at Cannes and is of some interest. "Joe" Weerasethakul's films are always the focus of attention, but this reputedly is a very sight one. I'm interested in anything by Fatih Akin. All in all quite an interesting, solid release list from this little distributor. Have a look.
______________

PARADISE: FAITH (Drama) Directed by Ulrich Seidl. In this second installment, Ulrich Seidl explores what it means to carry the cross. For Anna Maria, a single woman in her 50s (and sister of PARADISE: LOVE’s Teresa), paradise lies with Jesus. She devotes her summer vacation to doing missionary work, so that Austria may be brought back to the path of virtue. On her daily pilgrimage through Vienna, she goes from door to door, carrying a foot-high statue of the Virgin Mary. When her husband, an Egyptian Muslim confined to a wheelchair, comes home after years of absence, her life is turned upside down. FAITH recounts the stations of the cross of a marriage and the longing for love. Official Selection of the Venice International Film Festival. Opens in New York on Friday, August 23, 2013 at the City Cinema’s Village East.

IL FUTURO (Drama) Directed by Alicia Scherson (Play) When her parents die in a tragic car accident, adolescent Bianca's universe is suspended. Entrusted with the care of her younger brother, Tomas, she struggles to hold it together. Life is further complicated when Tomás's gym-rat friends invite themselves to stay indefinitely. Using Bianca as a lure for a heist they've concocted, they convince her to initiate a sexual relationship with an enigmatic blind hermit, Maciste (Rutger Hauer). But as the two spend time together, Bianca unexpectedly finds normalcy and acceptance in the aging B-movie star and former Mr. Universe's rococo mansion. Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival. Opens in New York on September 6, 2013 at the IFC Center. LA opening TBA.

ZAYTOUN (Drama) Directed by Eran Riklis (The Syrian Bride, Lemon Tree). In 1982, amid the Lebanese Civil War, Israeli pilot Yoni (Stephen Dorff) is shot down over Beirut and is taken prisoner by inhabitants of a Palestinian refugee camp. Among the captors is ten-year-old Fahed, whose father obsessively tends to his prized, but sickly olive tree, refusing to replant it until they return to their ancestral land. Despite his deep-rooted hatred for Yoni, Fahed realizes he can use him to get past the border and into “Palestine” to plant his father’s olive tree. The two embark on a harrowing and dangerous journey – one that tests the very boundaries of humanity. ZAYTOUN is a story of survival, reconciliation and friendship. Official Selection of the Toronto International Film Festival and AFI Festival. Opens in New York on Friday, September 20, 2013 at the Lincoln Plaza. Opens in Los Angeles on Friday, September 27, 2013 at Laemmle’s Royal Theatre, Playhouse 7 (Pasadena) and Town Center 5 (Encino).

I USED TO BE DARKER (Drama) Directed by Matt Porterfield (Hamilton, Putty Hill). When Taryn, a Northern Irish runaway, finds herself in trouble in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore. But Kim and Bill have problems of their own: they’re trying to handle the end of their marriage gracefully for the sake of their daughter Abby, just home from her first year of college. A story of family revelations, people finding each other and letting go, looking for love where they’ve found it before and, when that doesn’t work, figuring out where they might find it next. Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival. Opening September 27 at Charles Theatre in Baltimore; October 4 at IFC Center in NYC and October 11 at Sundance Sunset 5 in Los Angeles.

PARADISE: HOPE (Drama) Directed by Ulrich Seidl. The third installment in Ulrich Seidl’s PARADISE trilogy, PARADISE: HOPE tells the story of overweight 13-year-old Melanie and her first love. While her mother travels to Kenya (PARADISE: LOVE) and her aunt (PARADISE: FAITH) does missionary work, Melanie spends her summer vacation at a strict diet camp for overweight teenagers. Between physical education and nutrition counseling, pillow fights and her first cigarette, Melanie falls in love with the camp director, a doctor 40 years her senior. As the doctor struggles with the guilty nature of his desire, Melanie had imagined her paradise differently. Official Selection of the Berlin Film Festival. Opening Fall 2013.

POLLUTING PARADISE (Documentary) Directed by Fatih Akin (The Edge of Heaven, Head-On) Along the coast of the Black Sea in northeastern Turkey lies the small mountain town of Çamburnu – a place where villagers have thrived for generations on fishing and tea cultivation. A decade ago, this idyllic landscape was threatened by the government’s decision to build a garbage landfill directly above the village. Since its inception, the consequences have been devastating: the air is polluted, the ground water is contaminated, flocks of birds and stray dogs have besieged the village and the tea growers have lost their livelihood. Award-winning filmmaker Akin spent over five years documenting the small village’s fight against the government sanctioned facility and the resulting disasters that continue to plague this former paradise. Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival. Opening TBA.

MEKONG HOTEL (Drama) Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Blissfully Yours, Syndromes and a Century, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives). MEKONG HOTEL is a self-reflexive portrait of a hotel near the Mekong River in Thailand. In the bedrooms and terraces, director Apichatpong Weerasethakul holds a rehearsal with his crew for a movie he wrote years ago entitled Ecstasy Garden. The film blends fact and fiction, expressing the bonds between a vampire-like mother and her daughter, the young lovers and the river, while exploring themes of recollection, politics, Thai folklore and the modern world’s undeniable connection to its spiritual roots. Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival. Opening TBA.

STRANGER BY THE LAKE (Drama) Directed by Alain Guiraudie (No Rest for the Brave, The King of Escape). Summertime. A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake in rural France. Franck falls in love with Michel, an attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this, but wants to live out his passion anyway. Official Selection of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and winner of the Queer Palm and Un Certain Regard Best Director. Opening Spring 2014.

[tabuno]

This George Clooney, Sandra Bullock sci fi space thriller has the markings of a "serious" general release blockbuster from the trailers where specialist Bullock is lost in space in only her space suit orbiting earth through an accident with space debris. Whether or not the premise can hold up for over two hours of suspense is another story. If 127 Hours (2010) can do it, maybe Gravity can to. We'll see.

[Chris Knipp]

GRAVITY. Yes, serious blocubuster (oxymoron though?), could be right, tabuno.

You might mention the director: Alfonso Cuarón.

I always think of him as debuting with Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN (2001), which seemed to set an exciting new direction in Mexican filmmaking along with AMORES PERROS (Alejandro González Iñárritu 2000), and put Cuarón on the map as well as his two stars Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal.

But actually before that (1998) he did GREAT EXPECTATIONS! With Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow.

He's been an uneven director, but always an interesting one. I objected to his CHILREN OF MEN (2006), but in comparison to most recent sci-fi blockbusters, it stands out as clearly more individual and interesting.

[Chris Knipp]

I liked PAN'S LABYRINTH best. Not my thing, but superior to everything else he's done, even THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE .

P.s.

That opinion may be wrong; maybe THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE is better; PAN'S LABYRINTH is just like his later stuff, more technically intricate. Maybe it made an impression on me because it was part of the NYFF (2006). I just saw one critic writing about PACIFIC RIM say he liked Del Toro's first feature, CRONOS, best of all, and has not really liked anything else he's done since. It was Rex Reed in THE NEW YORK OBSERVER. Nobody much reads Reed any more (though he is cited by Metacritic) but I follow his reviews every week, and he ofen does four a week.

Pacific Rim was directed, more or less, by Mexico’s Guillermo del Toro. His debut film was a neat little horror called Kronos [sic: IMDb gives the spelling as CRONOS], but I have personally disliked everything he’s done since. I was not a fan of the labored, overrated Pan’s Labyrinth, and I hated the equally contrived and pretentious ghost story The Orphanage. The failure to impress is not reversed, I’m sorry to say, with the agonizingly juvenile Pacific Rim.
--Rex Reed

[tabuno]

"While a pretty good movie with compelling, thrilling cinematography, some of the best of the year, the screenplay falls a bit short with its over the top, somewhat manipulative and unnecessary exploitative death scenes. More subtlety and independent movie thinking would have made this movie a clear nominee for best picture. This movie follows in the footstep Fahrenheit 451 (1966), A.I. (2001), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Blade Runner (1982) with this amazing military scenes and the fine contrast between the rich and poor. The whole look of the movie is clearly a notch above almost any movie of the future, the atmospherics are terrific. The weak parts of the movie are the circumstances the scriptwriter needed to say the obvious with how many of the characters die. This is an ensemble piece where there really isn't the acting so much as the performance of the composite of the movie's actors. A credible, richly dense, layered movie with a few writing and plot weaknesses."

[tabuno]

THE BUTLER being released August 16 about a butler serving eight U.S. Presidents will be receiving award nominations based on the trailer, in the mold of LINCOLN (2012).

[Chris Knipp]

And I may like it about as much as I liked LINCOLN. In it Daniels seems to be becoming more conventional.

[Chris Knipp]

AUG. 16, 2013

This is a good weekend for US releases. I hope to review:
KICK-ASS 2
LEE DANIEL'S THE BUTLER
JOBS
And also these two released Aug. 3 but arriving in the Bay Area Aug. 16.
THE SPECTACULAR NOW
EUROPA REPORT
Also out today, in NYC:
AUSTENLAND - I'm holding my review for release in San Francsco a week alter
YOU ARE MY SON - Reviewed in this year's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema
AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS (coming later to SF?)
CUTIE AND THE BOXER (later SF release)
Another I'm holding full review for local release of, from SFIFF;
THE PATIENCE STONE

[oscar jubis]

Tonight I watched DON JON, a movie starring, written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It deals with the sex life of a 20-something, Italian-American, practicing Catholic. What's best about it is how it achieves a tone that can incorporate comedy and a bit of pathos, and Julianne Moore is in it. She always seems to be the best thing about the movies she's in. Some of the characters are "one-note", not fully fleshed out, and the script is too obvious in spots, but overall I think this is a good movie. It opens a week from Friday. I don't know how wide. Is anyone here interested?

[Chris Knipp]

Also New Jersey. Don't forget that part. And addicted to porn. Pretty wide release.. I've seen the trailer repeatedly. It's been around since Sundance, and reviewed; mixed. I like G-L.

[Johann]

I like Joseph Gordon-Levitt a lot.
He was on George Strombo last night, discussing his directorial debut, which looks good to my eye.
He's all about creation. He also discussed Marc Webb's 500 Days of Summer, which he loved to remember as a movie-making experience.
I'm glad he's taken his clout and poured it into a directing job.
He was one of the best things about The Dark Knight Rises too.
He's the new ROBIN!

[Chris Knipp]

Joe has had an unusually smart and adventurous filmography, and he's been rewarded with these blockbuster slots.