Christopher Nolan to Tackle Time-travel Next

With The Dark Knight trilogy officially behind him, Christopher Nolan has announced his next project: Interstellar. Interstellar was originally set aside to be directed by Steven Spielberg, but Robocalypse left him little choice but to move on.

Jonathan Nolan scripted the feature, he has previously collaborated with brother, Christopher, on The Prestige and Memento. He also co-wrote The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

"The story is about a group of scientists who travel through a worm hole, and it comes complete with alternate dimensions and time travel." Wow. So Mr. Nolan's next project is going to be a time-travel film, I wonder if I can team up with Rian Johnson and sneak into 2015 and see what it looks like?

(Courtesy: THR)

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Review: A Man and His Legacy (Lincoln)

Times are contentious in the Union. The Civil War rages on and the death toll is in the hundreds of thousands. Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) has two choices placed before him by his trusted Secretary of State, William Seward (David Strathairn at his wit's end). One, an amendment that would allow for slaves to be freed and the other, a peace agreement with the South. His recent re-election has bundled some goodwill for his agenda and he means to package it for the amendment.

The House is publicly divided between the Democrats, conservative and radical Republicans, with abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens (an Oscar-bound Tommy Lee Jones) corralling his caucus and Seward's task force of Bilbo (James Spader), Latham (John Hawkes) and Schell (Tim Blake Nelson) trading positions for votes.

Despite the heavy title and the prestige that the marketing and advertising have treated Lincoln with, this is not a biopic that showers its protagonist with awe. This is no Honest Abe by any means, he is a wily politician who knows people and what needs to be done to get legislation passed. It is easy to forget over the course of time that these icons were still men. That truth is often lost to time.

A man like President Lincoln casts a long shadow over history. He presided over an unparalleled time of controversy and he united a nation. What makes Lincoln successful is that Day-Lewis, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner play with the myths in the shadows.

Here, Lincoln's voice is not rich, it is of a plain speaker. He was not a perfect father, nor a perfect husband. He did not possess a crystal ball, but he held his beliefs with fierce conviction. Some of the Lewis' best scenes come when he is pressed on why he feels slavery has to be abolished at the cost of creating peace between the Confederates and the Union.

One of the directors that Steven Spielberg has been most compared with is John Ford. Now, it is no coincidence that both are masters at utilizing light and landscape. Often during the film Lincoln creates a large shadow walking into the room, but very quickly it shrinks down. The human interactions between him and Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) or Abe and Marie Todd (Sally Field) bring Lincoln down to an earthly scale. Day-Lewis and Sally Field's scenes offer a revelatory take on the dynamic between President and First Lady.

Considering the majority of Lincoln takes place in legislative halls and the halls of the White House, Kushner does an excellent job with the dialogue. The shop-talk portions including Spader, Jones and Strathairn feel like being let in the Capital in the 1860s. Limiting the scope of Lincoln's life was the best possible decision that Spielberg and Kushner could have made.

Whatever hold-ups some may have with Spielberg handling Lincoln are largely unfounded. Frequent collaborator, John Williams, refrains from creating swells of music that take viewers out of the drama of the moment. The tone is not Pollyanna-esque as one would expect, Lewis plays Lincoln as the world-weary man tired of war on his watch and tired of what humans are capable of doing to one another.

What Spielberg's film does is take Lincoln out of his marble casing and let's him stretch his legs amongst the people.

***1/2 out of ****

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"Clothed in Immense Power"

Daniel Day-Lewis' delivery of that last line is chilling. So can we please stop talking about his voice?

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'Lincoln' Teaser Promises Much

The man comes around. Finally, Daniel Day-Lewis is able to speak in the new trailer for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. Much like Henry Fonda in Young Mr. Lincoln, Lewis has to create a definitive tone for a man whose voice is not known. Unlike Fonda, Lewis has to do so for one of the most hyped films in recent memory. One of the greatest directors of our time tackling a subject of great consequence featuring one of history's most famous icons.

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Re-Release Review: Jaws

Thirty-seven years ago a film about a small, resort town shock the entire world. Jaws grossed nearly five hundred million dollars worldwide at the time of its release. Its impact has been a lasting one to say in the least. Numerous directors, actors, writers and critics site it as one of the best films in history.

Out-of-town sheriff, Martin Brody, (Roy Scheider) is spending his first summer in Amity. He has seen everything during his tenure in New York: murder, robberies, vandalism, you name it, but he has never seen anything like a shark attack. His instincts push him toward closing the beach after a teenage girl is killed, but the Mayor is uneasy, Amity depends on summer revenue. Against his wishes, Brody keeps the beach open and soon the beast attacks again, taking the life of another child.

Brody bucks the local leadership and enlists the aid of Oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) to find this shark. He doesn't disappoint: Hooper identifies the shark as a Great White. Suddenly, Captain Quint's (Robert Shaw) offer to kill the shark for $10,000 seems much more reasonable. Brody, Hooper and Quint set sail aiming to kill the shark that has plagued the town.

The plot itself may seem simplistic, but the reason Jaws is still so effective is because it captures an on elementary fear, a terror that resonates on a basic and primal level. The moment that most encapsulates that dread is Quint's monologue about the U.S.S. Indianapolis. Why this scenes works so perfectly in the film is also the reason why Steven Spielberg is considered a master of his art.

While these three men from all different walks of life compare scars in a competition of one-upmanship, Robert Shaw dials his performance up and delivers one of the better scenes of cinema. Quint, written off by most of Amity's residents as crazed, has a reason to his madness. Whatever scars Hooper or Brody have cannot compare to the haunting memory Quint shares with the audience.

"Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour."

The way Spielberg cuts from the bravado of drunken men and reveals insight into true horror. As far as man has advanced, even into the age of nuclear weapons, when man is descended into water, there is a creature more dominant than us. There is no weapon that can beat it back, or keep it at bay. Advantages given to man by way of history prove useless. In these moments of Jaws fear is all-encompassing. "Bruce", the name given to the mechanical creature that is accompanied by John William's famous score, represents an existential scare: we all will die, it is unavoidable.

That sentiment separates Spielberg's film from the rest of the horror genre. The scares are not brief; they are lasting. For this reason Jaws will never cease to be a mainstay of the pop culture consciousness. For that reason it is a classic.

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'Lincoln' Poster Is as Stoic as the Man

In case anyone forgot, Steven Spielberg is making a very serious movie about a serious president in a serious time. If "for your consideration" were slapped on there now, Dreamworks could save costs on ads in Variety later. In all seriousness, Daniel Day-Lewis resemblance to the deceased is remarkable. One of the major question marks I had going into production of this was Day-Lewis' ability to look like the man. No questions about that now.

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How to Be a Cinephile

The folks over at Awards Daily have compiled a list of required viewing for burgeoning cinephiles. The truth of it is becoming a cinephile is usually a complete fluke and maybe nothing more than a genetic accident. Even if one watched 4,000 films, who can say that makes you a cinephile? Still, Sasha Stone has listed a great deal of films from masters of cinema. Here's a peek of the list, the rest is here.

The Essential Stanley Kubrick
Dr. Strangelove
Lolita
The Shining
Paths of Glory

The Essential Steven Spielberg
Jaws
E.T.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Schindler’s List
The Color Purple

The Essential Martin Scorsese
Taxi Driver
Raging Bull
The King of Comedy
Goodfellas
Hugo

The Essential Hitchcock
Vertigo
Psycho
Rear Window
North by Northwest

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10 Words or Less: Jaws (1975)

He's a man-eater

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Not For Your Consideration

Another year has passed and again we find ourselves pining for recognition for films that should have been in the race, yet found themselves on the outside looking in. This is certainly not a new development, but here is a look at a few of the most notable snubs in Oscar history.

The Searchers (1956) - Best Director
John Ford was the last candidate imagined to tell the dark tale of a Civil War Veteran who exorcises his demons in violent revenge, but The Searchers inevitably became one of the true treasures of its genre. John Wayne would never give a better performance, nor have a better director to pull it out of him.

Some Like It Hot (1959)
Two men in drag on the lamb from the mob may seem like a bad screenplay, but in the hands of Billy Wilder, this film became a classic. One of the most treasured comedies of all-time went home with an Oscar for only costume design. A shame that cannot even be measured in words. The AFI selected Best Comedy deserved better. Much better.

Jaws (1975) - Best Director 
Steven Spielberg has been known for years as a director of "popcorn movies", but if anything Jaws was his most impressive job. Turning a mechanical shark named Bruce into a reason to avoid the ocean for millions of beach going filmgoers. 

Fight Club (1999)
No film defined the time it came out more than David Fincher's piece on adult angst in a consumer world. When we have no purpose and infinite amounts of things to define ourselves with, it seems the only resort we have left is to beat the hell out of each other. It's hard to imagine what Hollywood saw in American Beauty that wasn't more recognizable and less watered down in Fight Club.

The Dark Knight (2008)
The Dark Knight rule anyone? 2008 was an admittedly bad year for nominees as Slumdog Millionaire, and The Reader topped the list for Best Picture, but what made the snub so much worse was all the great films they could have nominated instead: The Wrestler, In Bruges, Doubt, Hunger, Wall-E, and Man On Wire. Christopher Nolan's genre revolutionizing tale of one man's crusade against crime would have been nominated any other year if only Batman didn't wear a cape.

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Review: The Adventures of Tintin

Tintin is a creation that has largely not made an impact on this side of the Atlantic, but the beloved creation of Hergé has been critiqued, studied, and read in Europe for the better part of several decades. In adapting the series into a new trilogy for modern times, the Holy Trinity of geek writers (Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish) have been brought in. The three very clearly hold the source material dear and what most moviegoers aren't familiar with could become a kid-Indy for future audiences.

After journalist, Tintin (Jamie Bell), purchases a model ship his life suffers a quick upheaval. His refusal to sell the ship to Sakharine (Daniel Craig doing his dastardly best) results in several murders and his kidnapping. Tintin awakens on a ship set for Morocco and finds that the ship that he has purchased is actually contained a map that could lead to untold fortune.

The crew of Captain Haddock (the inimitable Andy Serkis) have been paid handsomely to mutiny against Captain Haddock and his young boarders. Fortunately, Tintin's quick wit and talented dog Snowy manage to escape with Haddock in tow. As the two banter about Haddock's drinking and Tintin's slim resume on sailing, Haddock reveals to Tintin that his family shares history with the Sakharines. A combative history.

Over three hundred years ago Sir Francis Haddock was forced to abandon the Unicorn when attacked by a Sakharine, but before the ship was lost forever he managed to leave three scrolls throughout the world. If Tintin, Snowy and Haddock are to save the fortune and restore the Haddock family name, they must beat Sakharine to the locations of the three scrolls.

The trio's arrival in Morocco marks one of the most ingenious action sequences captured. It plays out like a Steven Spielberg Rube-Goldberg machine where wonder is freely flowing. This could never happen with the benefit of CGI or in a live-action film and it makes the one-shot all the more exciting.

A concern during pre-production of The Adventures of Tintin was the dead-eye that plagues all performance capture. Of course Spielberg and Peter Jackson addressed most concerns when Serkis was cast. A brilliant, if not mandatory, choice to play Haddock, hiring the most talented man in the field was a decision that must be made.

Fans of the source material may feel slighted as some of Tintin's characteristics are toned down to meet PG guidelines and series regulars like Thomson and Thompson (Nick Frost and Simon Pegg) aren't featured to a great extent in the film. That's okay given how little they provide to the stories they are featured in. Whether the story succeeds in the U.S. is anyone's guess, but for the gifted animation and skilled cast, Tintin more than meets expectations.

***/****

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