My Top Ten Most Anticipated Films of 2014

It's a bit premature for me to start yammering on about all the exciting films scheduled for release over the next 52 Fridays when I have only gotten to three of my top ten most anticipated films from last year. Still, since I've at least temporarily given up on the whole end-of-the-year list making racket, I feel like I should preserve some semblance of my past preoccupations, and by that I mean my future preoccupations. Bring on the coming distractions!

A few matters of housekeeping to note: any film from a previous year's list is exempt, hence the lack of Only Lovers Left Alive which so far has only played festivals; and films that have already had a theatrical release somewhere, anywhere, like Snowpiercer which has played practically everywhere but America, are also ineligible. This is about finding the newest new things. Onward.

10. The Monuments Men

Am I under any illusion that George Clooney's tale about a ragtag group of art specialists traipsing across Europe in an effort to save precious masterpieces from Nazi destruction will be a favorite by the end of the year? No, not really. But I sure like me some John Goodman, Bob Balaban, Cate Blanchett, and Bill Murray. I'd sure as hell try and save them from the Nazis.

9. Casting the Runes

Okay, so I'm not nearly as familiar with director Joe Dante as I should be (another filmography to brush up on this year) but homeboy made Gremlins and that makes him bulletproof. Having him team up with Simon Pegg for a story about a journalist who uncovers the secrets of a cult definitely doesn't hurt his prospects.

8. Magic in the Moonlight

Obligatory Woody Allen slot. As usual, it's anybody's guess at this point where on the quality spectrum his latest will fall. All we know is that it is a period piece (hooray!) and that Colin Firth and Emma Stone are leading a cast that includes Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, and Hamish Linklater. That's no Cate Blanchett/Louis C.K./Andrew Dice Clay triumvirate (I still haven't seen Blue Jasmine, by the way) but it's a decent enough tease.

7. They Came Together

Wet Hot American Summer screenwriters and The State alumni David Wain and Michael Showalter have collaborated on a new script about a woman played by Cobie Smulders whose business is threatened by a corporate takeover. The supporting cast is where this thing really tickles my fancy. Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Michael Shannon, and Ed Helms all have a piece of this thing. According to that picture, part of that piece includes Rudd beating the snot out of Shannon.

6. Veronica Mars

Season one of Veronica Mars is about as perfect as a contained televised story can be. Unfortunately, after that it was a case of ever-diminishing returns. But still, I've got faith for this cinematic reunion. Two words: Dick Casablancas.

5. Gone Girl

I abandoned author Gillian Flynn's debut novel Sharp Objects after the first chapter because the writing style annoyed me and the subject matter was unpleasant in an unpleasant sort of way. So why am I throwing my weight behind the film adaptation of her follow-up bestseller? Because David Fincher. If I remember correctly he was involved in another adaptation of a lackluster literary phenomenon. For my money, that turned out rather well. Here's hoping Ben Affleck's search for his missing wife is cold, obsessive, and scored by Trent Reznor.

4. Inherent Vice

Speaking of literary works I couldn't get behind, I wasn't a huge fan of Thomas Pynchon's shaggy dog detective novel Inherent Vice (I did finish that one though) but it's Paul Thomas Anderson doing the adapting and Joaquin Fucking Phoenix (I have hearby legally changed Phoenix's middle name, remember that) starring as the stoned protagonist Doc Sportello. If nothing else the film will probably boast impeccable '70s period detail and at least one amazing tracking shot. Oh, and a great soundtrack. Who am I kidding? It's going to be amazing.

3. The Prophet

There is no new Pixar film coming out this year. (This is a good thing.) Meanwhile, the new Disney film is a Marvel adaptation, which leaves me with a severe case of the sighs. However, there is a new animated feature that sounds exciting, fresh, and inspired. The Prophet is an adaptation of Lebanese poet and philosopher Khalil Gibran's book from 1923. Nine different directors will animate a portion of the film in their own style, including artists who have done work on films such as The Lion King, Fantasia 2000, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But there are two more idiosyncratic names attached to the film that really get me excited: Sita Sings the Blues creator Nina Paley and maverick cartoonist Bill Plympton.

2. Voyage of Time/Knight of Cups/Untitled Terrence Malick Film

So IMDb lists three potential Terrence Malick films for 2014. One is the long-discussed companion piece to The Tree of Life, the IMAX exploration about the origins of the universe, Voyage of Time. Knight of Cups meanwhile sees Christian Bale being tempted by Cate Blanchett and/or Natalie Portman among other things. Lastly, there's the as-yet-untitled star-studded film about love in the Austin music scene. I'll take any and all of those whenever you're ready, Terry.

1. Boyhood

After finally getting around to watching the entire Before trilogy last year, I decided to go whole hog and make my way through the entirety of Richard Linklater's ouevre. As of now I'm about halfway there. His latest film, Boyhood, sounds like an incredible once-in-a-lifetime production that will be a nice cap to my ongoing project. Linklater and his cast have been sporadically filming the movie for the last twelve years, charting the real growth of a boy from adolescence to adulthood. If we thought it was great catching up with Celine and Jesse every nine years, seeing over a decade unfurl over the course of two hours should be riveting.

Which three of these will I have actually seen by January 1st, 2015?? It's anybody's guess!

Cinematic Capsules: June 2012

I'm stealing a device used by my mortal enemy Sean over at The End of Cinema blog. Each month I will be posting a compendium of capsule reviews for the films I saw over the course of the last thirty days (Disney features and films from the current year excepted). I will then be indexing the films on decade-by-decade pages for easier navigation further on down the line. One thing I will not be doing is retroactively ranking a year's new additions because that would drive me insane. It's the lightning round kids, did you bring your golf clubs?

Castle in the Sky (1986)

The lone Miyazaki film I had not yet seen is--as the rest--a sweeping tale full of chimerical imagination and gorgeous animation. The film follows a girl who is being pursued by an army and a band of pirates because she possesses a crystal that contains an energy source humans no longer no how to harness. She falls from an airship into the arms of a sweet boy looking for adventure. The two head off in search of the castle in the sky, a sort of Atlantis in the clouds, that was once home to an ancient race but has since fallen into ruin. The film combines many elements familiar to those of Miyazaki's oeuvre, there is a fascination with flight and aerial craft (Porco Rosso), an abiding reverence for nature (Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind), and a young female protagonist (all of the rest). Castle in the Sky doesn't quite live up to some of the masterpieces later in his career, in part because it feels just a tad too long, but second-tier Miyazaki is still some of the greatest cinema out there.


I'm A Cyborg But That's Okay (2006)

Park Chan-wook's follow-up to his revered vengeance trilogy, is the story of a girl who is convinced she is a robot and is institutionalized when she slits her wrists and inserts active wiring into her flesh. At the sanitarium she meets a bunch of patients with their own quirky brands of psychosis, including a boy who steals peoples' traits while wearing a bunny mask. The boy falls for the girl, who he longs to care for, in turn losing some of his psychosis along the way. The film is a tad overwhelming with all of the manic characters running about, but as the film slowly teases out hints of how all of these people came to be here, the girl's story most of all, it becomes something deeper and more rewarding. The budding romance between the two main characters is disarmingly sweet. Chan-wook's eye is as strong as ever, he practically overloads the frames with vibrant color and well-conceived action.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

My first official exposure to Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy and truly I only gave in for David Fincher (and that absolutely incredible teaser trailer). The brief plot outline for those living under a rock for the last couple of years, involves a disgraced journalist (Daniel Craig) who is offered the job of ostensibly writing the memoir of an aged industrialist (Christopher Plummer), when in fact he is investigating a decades-old murder. He is helped by the titular anti-heroine, played well by Rooney Mara, a tech-savvy, drug-addled, motorcycle punk with some serious issues. Because of all of the hype and hysteria surrounding the work I was expecting something all together more gruesome than what was delivered, maybe something more akin to a certain movie by the director of the aforementioned cyborg film. Admittedly the scenes of rape and torture were plenty brutal and stomach-turning, but I expected the film to be more relentless. Instead a lot of it is taken up with Craig looking at old pictures and talking to elderly nazis, while Mara types away on her MacBook. The investigative nature of the film immediately recalls Fincher's Zodiac, a more idiosyncratic and all together better film that leaves the viewer with a lot more to chew on. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is far from bad--in fact, it's good!-- but it feels less personal. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross once again contribute a stellar soundtrack, as they did for Fincher's The Social Network.

The Italian Job (1969)

Aptly summed up as the film where Benny Hill plays a computer wizard with an ass fetish, the original British version of The Italian Job is for the most part, a painful experience to watch. It is a woefully unfunny attempt at a comedic caper film that traffics in that special blend of tedious weirdness only Britain in the late sixties could produce. Michael Caine plays a career criminal who takes on an elaborate heist for his recently deceased friend. Noel Coward of all people plays a well-to-do, thoroughly British crime lord who oversees the plan from his regal perch in prison. The first hour is an absolute waste of time, with Caine bedding various birds while piecing together the elements for his theft of $4 million in gold being transported through Italy. The film is most remembered for its climactic car chase featuring a trio of colorful Mini Coopers, and the sequence is easily the most fun part of the picture, even though it is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. Somehow the silliness that eludes the film for its first seventy minutes works here. Unfortunately the goofy getaway is not enough to salvage an otherwise worthless movie.