Wes Anderson and Brad Pitt Finally Make a Film Together

Actually, it's just a Japanese cell phone commercial, but Anderson uses the opportunity to pay tribute to great French director Jacques Tati and his M. Hulot character, specifically in Tati's Holiday (reserve it here!). Below are the commercial and the trailer for its inspiration.

And When the Cold Sets In, Stay Inside and Watch Movies, part 1

So it's been a weird, dead year for movies. Part of this is due to the Writer's Strike and the fact that studios simply rushed movies out with scripts that perhaps could have used a bit more work. Anyway, it's Fall turning into Winter now, which means Oscar rollout season. Funny enough, there's a ton of junk coming out soon, with only a small handful of films that I'm looking forward.

One of those is David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Adapted from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the film deals with Benjamin Button, born an old child, who grows younger as time passes, and his encounters with Blanchett's Daisy. Fincher shot this New Orleans-set tale around his great Zodiac, which was released two years ago roughly.



I'm also really looking forward to Wendy and Lucy, Kelly Reichardt's follow-up to Old Joy. This stars a wandering and financially struggling Michelle Williams, who struggles through the most basic financial setbacks in a poor town.



Nacho Vilagondo's much-buzzed aboutTimecrimes (see earlier post for trailer) is finally seeing the light of day. Hopefully it reaches our city and we're able to catch it on the big screen before David Cronenberg's remake.

Another that I've already talked about is Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke as a washed-up pro wrestler and his almost-girlfriend/over-the-hill stripper Marisa Tomei.

There are a few more to talk about...soon.

--co
www.citizen-video.com

Awesomeness on the way

It seemed like things were getting a little quiet in the future releases, which might be partly due to the Writer's Strike that went on for a while, which led to studios simply accepting whatever scripts they could to push them into production, which is just now leading to the release of even shittier Hollywood products than normal. But how much of that do we really give a shit about at Citizen Video? (Not much.) So here is some news on some American independent and Foreign titles to keep an eye out for.

First is Stingray Sam, Cory McAbee's quasi-sequel follow-up to his great debut, The American Astronaut, a Citizen favorite.



Here's a weird little movie out of Winnipeg, Heart of Karl, about a man and his brother, who happens to be a monster.

Red, starring Brian Cox, among others, didn't get much attention theatrically, but the trailer looks mighty nice.



--co

Some out of the way indie news first:

Dagur Kari, writer/director of the much-loved Noi Albinoi, has his first English-language film, starring Brian Cox and Paul Dano, entitled The Good Heart, and some pics and info have popped up.

Here's a nice trailer for a Russian film Morfiy, very Lynchian.

This looks pretty great, a Japanese trailer for a British psychological horror by the name of The Broken.

--co

And Let the Right One In I Did

So yesterday my special lady and I made the drive to LA to catch Let the Right One In, the Swedish vampire/preteen love story I keep talking about and which I've heard nothing but great things about. And guess what? It's fucking great. I can't readily compare to much else in terms of how it's handled. It opens here at Hillcrest Cinemas on the 7th, so be sure to catch it before the shitty remake by shitty Matt Reeves of shitty Cloverfield fame.

Among the film's opening this weekend are Kevin Smith's new one, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. Buzz has been pretty good on it, but apparently it's finding a bit of trouble with theatrical distribution, considering it doesn't shy away from the subject matter.



One of my favorite filmmakers, Mike Leigh, (whose Naked I watched again the other night for the umpteenth time), has a new film, Happy-Go-Lucky.



Clint Eastwood's Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie, also premieres. See the post below for more info...

Recent divorcees Guy Ritchie and Madonna have competing new releases this week, Ritchie with RocknRolla and Madonna with Filth and Wisdom...

Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for Gus van Sant's Milk, about the assassination of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician, starring Sean Penn in the title, with supporting roles by James Franco and Josh Brolin...

Film News for Film Nerds

Not a whole lot too exciting currently. I caught a press screening of Synedoche, New York, the directorial debut by acclaimed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fame. It's great, it's insanely weird, and I'll be catching it again as soon as it opens here. Check a few posts down for a nice trailer for the film.

Next Friday, Nov. 7, sees the San Diego release of the Swedish film Let the Right One In (also see below), a film that has been garnering nothing but ecstatic reviews over the last few months as it's played various festivals. I'll be going up to LA tomorrow to catch it...

Clint Eastwood has a couple of films coming out in time for Oscar season, and they both look like total duds. The first is The Changeling, set in the late '20s and starring Angelina Jolie as a mother whose son disappears and is eventually found. The catch is that Jolie doesn't believe the boy to be her son, and nobody is willing to look into it.



The other Eastwood film is Gran Turino, in which Eastwood stars as a grumpy old tough guy who ends up helping the bullied teenage neighbor next door.



It appears that the great Crispin Glover has a role in Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland, starring Johnny Depp.

Steven Soderbergh is following up his two-part Che film with a musical about Cleopatra, set in the 1920s, with Catherine Zeta-Jones as the Queen and Hugh Jackman as somebody else. Music by Guided by Voices.

The great little French thriller 13 Tzameti is being remade for an American audience by the original film's director, with Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, and 50 Cent.

Citizen favorite Todd Field, director of In the Bedroom and Little Children, is signed on to direct Buried for Paramount Vantage before he takes on Cormac McCarthy's epic Blood Meridian.

Another Citizen favorite, David Gordon Green, is putting off his remake of the Dario Argento classic Suspiria to film an adaptation of Freaks in the Heartland, the graphic novel by Steve Niles and Greg Ruth.

That's it for now. Try not to pee your pants on Halloween.

Tomorrow night!

Come out and have a few beers with us.



--co