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A Film Too Tough To Handle & I'm Off To Toronto!
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- Written by Matthew Toomey
Snowtown
There’s a very interesting Australian film being released on May 19. It’s called Snowtown and having now seen it twice, I should have a full review up on my site by the weekend.
I don’t want to say too much just yet but it’s one of the most unsettling films that I’ve seen in a long time. I was lucky enough to host a Q&A last night with the director, Justin Kurzel. You can check out a photo of us here...
Justin was great to speak with and offered much insight into the film and what he was trying to achieve. Snowtown has been selected for Critic’s Week at the Cannes Film Festival too which is a great honour. Justin flies out tomorrow and I’ll be curious to see what kind of reception it gets at Cannes.
Despite the fact that a Q&A would be hosted afterwards, it didn’t stop 25 people in total from leaving before the film finished. It’s a very tough film to watch at times and some people just couldn’t take it. One member in the audience, Sarah Moran, wrote a great piece on her experience which you can read by clicking here.
I may sound strange but I think this film’s selling point is its hard-hitting nature. When I tweeted that a number of people had walked out last night, I received a few comments like this on Twitter – “I want watch it now!”, “I kind of want to see this now. Didn't know about it but sounds like an interesting watch” and “I'll have to check it out - sounds really interesting”.
It’s kind of like reverse psychology. If you tell people not to go see a film because it’s going to be “too hard to watch”, then it’s going to get people’s attention. They’ll want to see the film themselves to find out what all the fuss is about.
The film isn’t perfect but I do hope a lot of people take the time to see it. It’ll open their eyes to a dark part of Australian culture that is often unspoken about. Whether you like it or not, it’s a film that will generate discussion. I certainly won’t forget it in a hurry.
Toronto Film Festival
I’ve been planning this over the past couple of months but everything looks locked in for my trip to the Toronto Film Festival. It’s been a new years resolution of mine for a while and I’ve finally found the time and energy to organise it.
Applications for press accreditation open in June and hopefully I’ll be able to get some decent. Would love to be able to attend press screenings with some of my favourite US critics and then have access to a few of the stars. Worst case scenario, I’ll go along to the screenings with the general public.
Toronto has always been my favourite film festival to follow on the web given it’s the launching platform for so many Oscar contenders. It’ll be exciting to get a heads up on many from the 2011 crop and I’ll be trying to blog / tweet continually while there.
The plan is to also spend some time in New York and Washington DC (two places on my bucket list) and I’ll hopefully be able to sneak in a few Broadway shows. Can’t wait!
Cannes Film Festival
If I could pick another film festival to attend, it’d be the one and only Cannes Film Festival. It kicks off tomorrow with the premiere of Woody Allen’s new film, Midnight In Paris. This year’s jury is headed by Robert DeNiro and many well known filmmakers have their latest works in contention.
The film everyone is waiting for is Terrence Malick’s Tree Of Life. Malick is a gifted filmmaker (The Thin Red Line, Badlands) but perhaps he is more widely known for being a recluse. He hasn’t given an interview since 1973 and you’d be hard-pressed to find many photos of him on the internet. I don’t know how he manages to keep such a low profile. It’ll be interesting to see if he shows up in Cannes.
Also adding to the mystique of the film is the fact it is was shot so long ago. It was originally going to be released in December 2009 but Malick decided it wasn’t ready yet. There have been a few other hiccups along the way but the good news is that it will finally see the light of day at Cannes. The trailer looks fantastic and I hope it lives up to the hype.
Also screening at Cannes are The Skin I Live In (the latest from two time Oscar winner Pedro Almodovar), Melancholia (from Lars Von Trier), Sleeping Beauty (directed by Australian novelist Julia Leigh) and The Beaver (directed by Jodie Foster).
What I’d give to be in Cannes over the next two weeks!
Previewing The 2011 Summer Blockbuster Season
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- Written by Matthew Toomey
I’ve spent the last week on holidays and competing in the Queensland Men’s Amateur Championship (aka the Queensland golf titles). I was asked a couple of times about what movies would be worth seeing over the next few months. I couldn’t run through a list off the top of my head and so in this week’s blog, I thought I’d preview the summer blockbuster season.
It effectively kicked off last weekend in the US with the release of Fast Five (which raked in a huge $83.6m in its first 3 days) and continues this week with Thor. Over the next three months, all the major studios will be working overtime to promote their big budget films. Their goal is simple – to pull in as much money as they can from the American public.
As has become the norm in recent years, these studios have become very conservative with their offerings. They’re sticking to remakes and sequels because they know an audience already exists. It’s nice to see something original (like Inception last year) but these seem to be the exception rather than the rule.
On that note, here’s the list of the major releases over the next few months. I’ve included the current Australian release date and a brief plot overview as per the wonderful IMDB. You’ll be bombarded with advertising about these movies in the coming weeks but this list might help put a few of them on your radar…
Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (May 19)
Jack Sparrow and Barbossa embark on a quest to find the elusive fountain of youth, only to discover that Blackbeard and his daughter are after it too.
The Hangover: Part II (May 26)
Phil, Stu, and Alan travel to Bangkok for Stu's wedding only to find themselves in another post-blackout misadventure.
X-Men: First Class (June 2)
In 1963, Charles Xavier starts up a school and later a team, for humans with superhuman abilities. Among them is Erik Lensherr, his best friend... and future archenemy.
Super 8 (June 9)
After witnessing a mysterious train crash, a group of friends in the summer of 1979 begin noticing strange happenings going around in their small town, and begin to investigate into the strange phenomenon.
Green Lantern (June 16)
A test pilot is granted a mystical green ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron tasked with keeping peace within the universe.
Bridesmaids (June 16)
Picked as her best friend's maid of honor, lovelorn and broke Annie looks to bluff her way through the expensive and bizarre rituals with an oddball group of bridesmaids.
Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom Of Doom (June 23)
Po joins forces with a group of new kung-fu masters to take on an old enemy with a deadly new weapon.
Cars 2 (June 23)
Racing star Lightning McQueen teams up with his best friend Mater for an international adventure as they go up against the world's fastest cars.
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (June 30)
The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and learn its secrets, which could turn the tide in the Transformers' final battle.
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (July 13)
The end begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione go back to Hogwarts to find and destroy Voldemort's final horcruxes.
Bad Teacher (July 21)
A comedy centered around a foul-mouthed, junior high teacher who, after being dumped by her sugar daddy, begins to woo a colleague -- a move that pits her against a well-loved teacher.
The Beaver (July 21)
A troubled husband and executive adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole means of communicating.
Captain America: The First Avenger (July 28)
After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America's ideals.
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (August 4)
An story set in present day San Francisco, where man's own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.
Cowboys & Aliens (August 11)
A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys are all that stand in their way.
Interview With Kenneth Branagh, Director Of Thor
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- Written by Matthew Toomey
You can download an abbreviated podcast of this interview by clicking here.
Matt: One of the reasons I love talking about movies is because I get opportunities like this. I’m speaking this morning with Kenneth Branagh, an Oscar nominated actor, writer and director. It was announced back in September 2008 that he’d be seated in the director’s chair for Thor and now after two and a half years of hard work we finally get to see the finished product. Mr Kenneth Branagh, good morning.
Kenneth: Good morning.
Matt: You’ve been in Australia for the world premiere of the film. How were we lucky enough to get that honour?
Kenneth: In the jockeying for position that the big film companies do for where their movies go, they were looking to put this picture at the beginning of the American summer, in front of everyone else’s summer.
But we were also trying to find where they had the most space to release it and it kind of fell into place for Australia. It seemed perfect given Chris Hemsworth’s attachment and given they also knew I loved Australia. The travel plans to get everyone around the globe together seemed to point towards Australia and so they’re lucky enough to be the first people to see the film.
Matt: Every time I hear your name I always think about Shakespeare – the films you’ve directed like Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet. I then heard you were directing a Marvel comic book. What is it we don’t know about you? How did you get interested in the project?
Kenneth: I love going to the pictures and I’d go a couple of times a week with my wife. We’ll see something obscure and then we’ll see something entirely popular. We like the “big movie” experience and I’d gotten to the stage where I’d seen so many of these films and I’d made a number myself. I wanted to put my experience of both together and when this project came up, my name was thrown into the ring.
It was a comic that I knew. It was a character that I knew from my youth and I loved the epic story at the centre of which was this wild, primitive man, barely in control of his very, very dangerous energy. He travels through space, he can be on earth, he can be in the home of the gods in Asgard and I thought this was amazing material to try to make a film of. It was very exciting.
Matt: These comics have been around for about 50 years ago. They would have changed a lot over time and there have been so many issues that would have been released. Where do you start? How do you make a movie out of all of that?
Kenneth: Good question. You throw yourself into the comics and you pull out, in broad terms, many different versions of the comics. The world is very psychedelic or very gothic or very space age. You then look back at the Norse myths themselves that Marvel successfully plundered to create their version of things.
You also look at modern influences and architecture such as images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Then you sit in a room with a designer, a visual effects supervisor and you start to try to put it together and work out how much time you want to spend on each location.
It’s trial and error. We tried to find something that combines the ancient with the modern. We had a primitively influenced society who were nevertheless technologically advanced and lived on as asteroid at the top of space. It adds up to some spectacular images – like six people on horseback riding across a rainbow bridge in outer space.
Matt: Comic book films have become so popular and trendy over the past decade. We seem to have a few of them released every year. Were you trying to distinguish your film in some way? To give it that Kenneth Branagh stamp?
Kenneth: We started already with a distinct difference because Thor is a god. Stan Lee, when he started working on the comic said that he’d gone as far as he could go with human beings.
In a way, we have a reverse journey. Most superheroes start in ordinary circumstances and then something extraordinary happens... like being bitten by a spider, they are given powers and the story begins.
Here, we have a hero who is a god with extraordinary powers and he goes through the opposite. The powers are taken away from him and he lives in an ordinary place. I liked that “switch around” where our hero has to learn humility. He has to learn more about how to be a leader by looking at examples from human beings. I thought it was a beautiful twist.
Matt: Do you feel pressure making a film like this with the huge budget and all the fans of the comic book with their expectations? Is it tougher than your normal film?
Kenneth: You’re certainly aware of an intense gaze, an intense level of interest. There was no decision that was made on the film, whether it be the casting or the colour of a helmet, that wasn’t the subject of vigorous, passionate debate. You have to take it all with a respectful pinch of salt and say “Hey, we’re making a film. We’re not making some documentary about the comic. We will try to find the essence and we will try to make it a film story.”
The pleasure so far in unveiling the picture is that comic book fans who have seen it have been very passionate. One told me he had a “nerd-gasm” and I’m taking that as being a positive reaction.
Matt: I know Stan Lee created the character back in 1962. Do you know if he’s seen the film yet?
Kenneth: He has not seen the film yet. There’s a tradition that he plays a cameo in his films and I cannot confirm or deny that he has a cameo in our film. Perhaps the tradition continues.
He was my first port of call. I had lunch with him at the beginning of the project and I was inspired by his energy at the age of 86. He was very supportive but he just said to get on with it. Excelsior!
Matt: You’ve got me curious now because I’ve seen the film and I can’t remember seeing Stan Lee so now I’ll have to see it again.
Kenneth: I could tell you but I would have to kill you. I promise you that if you revisit it with that question in mind, you would not be disappointed.
Matt: Did you think about putting yourself in there? I know you’ve done that before with some of the other films you’ve directed?
Kenneth: You asked earlier about the amount of pressure and I felt I didn’t want to extend that further by being it and so this time, I said “no, I have enough to do.”
Matt: I think you’ve got a pretty good cast anyway – Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Renner, Stellan Skarsgard. What was your pitch to these guys? How did you get them on board?
Kenneth: Anthony Hopkins looked at the part of Odin and he felt it was a wonderful opportunity to play the king of the universe and convey the kind of power and intelligence and danger that he can through saying very little. He only has one eye and yet he is still indelibly powerful.
As for Natalie, the invitation was to help us create a character that was not going to be some fluffy love interest. She was there to lend a scientific credibility to the relative reality of our superhero movie. Her genuine intellectual curiosity, in addition to her staggering beauty, was vital to sustaining the role.
That part was not well established when she first joined the film and I admire her tremendously for bringing that kind of commitment and taking that kind of risk. We stuck by our promise to make that character as unusual and as striking as she makes it.
Matt: I enjoyed the sense of humour that she brought to the film alongside Stellan Skarsgard and Kat Dennings. I thought they worked really well off each.
Kenneth: Thank you for that. They worked really hard together. Stellan Skarsgard brings such authenticity to the role. He’s so utterly real with everything he does. Kat Dennings has such a brilliant comic gift and had such an effective rapport with the other two. You warm to that side of the picture enormously and it helps draw us in.
Matt: I have to mention the Aussie connection – Chris Hemsworth in the leading role. I know some here will remember him from Home & Away but I wouldn’t describe him as an international household name. It was a bit of a gamble for you taking him on. What won you over?
Kenneth: We did want to discover an actor in the role of Thor and this would be a way for the audience to enjoy the story, the film and the character without associating any actor with previous movie star baggage.
The joy was to try and find someone who was going to come up with the goods physically and be as magnificent as this god needed to look. Mr Hemsworth certainly does that. And then he needed to have the commitment to the acting range that’s required – to have the courage to be as arrogant as Thor is at the beginning of our story and yet still be charming and funny when he is a “fish out of water” on earth.
By the end of the film he has a directness, a sweetness and a straight forward honest quality that completes Thor’s changing journey before our very eyes. He had all of that and he’s also a natural in front of the camera.
We knew we needed someone who could carry the movie, as young as he was going to be, and Mr Hemsworth did that beautifully.
Matt: Kelly Higgins-Devine here at the ABC was very impressed with his abs and she wanted to know if they were digitally done or if they really were that good?
Kenneth: I can absolutely promise you that Mr Hemsworth’s body was untouched by the digital effects crew.
Matt: Talking about special effects, 3D is becoming more and more prevalent these days. Some films are taking advantage of the technique better than others. What made you decide to go down the 3D path with Thor?
Kenneth: To try to make a differently immersive film experience, especially with the possibility of travelling through space. I wanted to do so in a way that provided a smooth experience on the eye and wouldn’t give people headaches or restrict me in the way I moved the camera and so we didn’t shoot in 3D. We converted and rendered the 1,300 special effects shots in 3D so that we could be both subtle and bold depending on the scene.
Matt: I’ll finish up by asking the touristy question. Have you had a chance to see some of the sights here in Australia or have you been too busy promoting the film?
Kenneth: I’m in Sydney and I went running around the Botanical Gardens this morning and my wife and I believe we will try to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I was also in a boat on the harbour yesterday. I know Sydney fairly well and I’d love to get up your way but it may not be this trip.
Matt: I’m sure you’ve got plenty of other places to visit around the world in the next few weeks to help promote this film and I know it’s going to be doing big business at the box-office. Mr Kenneth Branagh, I love your work and thank you for joining us.
Kenneth: I appreciate it. It was nice to talk Matthew. Thank you.
Giving Away The Ending To A Movie? You're An A**hole
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- Written by Matthew Toomey
Back in late 2009, I wrote a blog about the role of a film critic. You can check out the full article here but to quickly summarise, the 4 key points were:
Point 1: Promotion
I’ve never seen a film which was unanimously liked or disliked. We’re all different people and we’re all going to take something different away from a film. Even if two moviegoers are similar, they may still see a film differently based on the mood they’re in at the time.
So I do see my role as important in terms of “promotion”. Through my website and though the ABC, I try to get people interested in going to the movies. It’s that simple. There are some awesome ways for the people of Brisbane to experience an art form (movies, plays, musicals, concerts) but they often don’t know they’re on.
Point 2: Expanding Horizons
Everyone always knows when a big blockbuster is showing. I’ve said this numerous times before but my review of these films is meaningless. I don’t think it would stop a single person from seeing it.
I prefer telling people about a smaller film that’s currently in movie theatres which has received little-to-no advertising. I like to promote low-budget Australian films with blossoming stars. I like to get people to film festivals as a way of opening their eyes. So many movies are made and yet we find ourselves drawn to the big action blockbusters through the manipulation of the media and Hollywood studios.
Point 3: Offer Insight
I sometimes slip up on this point (especially for films I don’t like) but a good review should offer insight. Given that a critic sees so many films, they should be able to pick up on details which others may not. When I watch Margaret and David on At The Movies (two incredibly experienced critics), they often say something which leaves me thinking “you know, they’re right, I can’t believe I didn’t realise that.”
In my own movie reviews, I try to include titbits of information and quotes from actors/directors which readers might find interesting. This can be particularly so after someone has seen a movie. You can then read back on a review and think – “ah, I didn’t know that’s what the direction was trying to achieve.”
Point 4: Generate Discussion!
The above three points all lead into what I think is the most important – generating discussion. Disagreeing about a movie can be really fun. A good example is Gran Torino. It was a film I didn’t like but I’ve spent a lot of time debating its merits with other people – some who liked it and others who didn’t. There’s no right or wrong answer. It’s great to talk about, to interact with people.
When I wrote the above, there’s one thing I failed to mention. A critic shouldn’t give away key plot twists, especially if they’re critical to the movie. You’d think that would go without saying but one person who didn’t get the message was Jim Schembri, critic for The Age in Melbourne.
Last Thursday, I saw a number of fellow critics express their shock and disbelief that Schembri had given away the killer’s identity in Scream 4 in the first line of his review.
Here’s what he said in his carve up of the film (and I’ve taken out the name of the killer)…
“Only the sight of (actor’s name) getting all kill-happy in the frenzied, formulaic final-reel bloodbath makes this totally unwanted, utterly predictable franchise stretcher marginally worthwhile.”
Are you kidding me? I didn’t like the movie either but there’s no way that I’d be spoiling it for others. As I noted above in point 1, just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean that others will feel the same way. What point was Schembri trying to make by opening which such a huge spoiler?
At just after 6pm, I vented my own dissatisfaction with Schembri by posting this tweet on Twitter – “Jim Schembri's review of Scream 4 in The Age reveals identity of killer in the first line. What's he trying to prove? That he's an a**hole?” I then turned my phone off and slipped into a preview screening of Mrs. Carey’s Concert at the Palace Centro.
When I got out two hours later, I was stunned with the number of responses that I’d received back. Most contained profanity so I won’t include them in this blog (need to at least attempt to keep things “family friendly”). Let’s just say that many people agreed with my comment and the overwhelming answer to the question I posed was “yes”.
I was also surprised by the number of people who had re-tweeted my comment. When you’ve got the likes of Wil Anderson giving you a re-tweet (with his 87,750 followers), it’s certainly going to help get your message out there.
Here’s a picture to show you the image I had on my phone after getting out of Mrs. Carey’s Concert - http://twitpic.com/4lytaz. I’d suddenly found myself a Twitter trending topic both in Melbourne and Australia wide. I was ranking just ahead of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
I was happy. I couldn’t think of a single justifiable reason why Schembri would spoil the film and he needed to be pulled up on it. I’d made my point and thought that would be the end of it.
Wrong. Turns out that Schembri has a Twitter account and he fired back the next day with this comment – “We do NOT give away the ending. http://tinyurl.com/42amzo2 And pity on those sad Twitts who think abuse is cool.”
Huh? I quickly clicked on the link to pull up his review once again. He was right. He hadn’t given away the ending… but that’s because he’d changed his review! Here’s what it now said…
“Only the sight of (actor’s name) getting caught up in the frenzied, formulaic final-reel makes this totally unwanted, utterly predictable franchise stretcher marginally worthwhile.”
Now I was totally confused. Why would he change his review and then have a go at the people who criticised him? Isn’t that a major contradiction? If you’ve made a mistake, at least admit it. Don’t try to cover up your tracks. Luke Buckmaster from Cinetology has also written a nice piece on the whole debacle which you can view by clicking here.
Can we put this matter behind us? Perhaps not. Schembri posted this tweet a few hours ago – “The full story behind the Scream 4 meta-controversy coming soon. Stay tuned next week. And thank you all for playing.”
Is Schembri simply covering his tracks? Or was there some method to his madness? I guess we’ll find out but until he proves otherwise, he’s still an a**hole.