BuzzSugar

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:30:26 -0700

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.

Pan's Labyrinth
Not for the weak of stomach, Pan's Labyrinth is a mesmerizing, adventurous, grisly yet beautiful fantasy tale for adults. Set in 1944 Spain after the Spanish Civil War, the story follows young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), who goes to live with her new stepfather, the ruthlessly cruel Captain Vidal. In the nearby woods, Ofelia stumbles upon an other worldly realm where she meets fantastical creatures, like the Fauno (Pan) who informs her that she is actually a princess, and in order to return to her rightful royal family, she must complete certain tasks. Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro is masterful in his weaving together of a fantastical story and a grimly violent reality. For more details - including my thoughts on the film's remarkable sound production - check out my review. The 2-disc DVD includes plenty of special features, including featurettes on the myths of the film and production sketches.

Another good one if you read more

The Dead Girl
Also not for the faint of heart, The Dead Girl features a great cast including Toni Collette, James Franco and Giovanni Ribisi, and was both written and directed by Karen Moncreiff. The crime drama centers on the murder of a young woman and spins outward to tell the stories of several other characters. Each person's segment is like a well-crafted short story, with the film culminating in a story about "the dead girl" herself. Chilling and dark, The Dead Girl is a successful follow-up to Moncreiff's last project, Blue Car.

What 2007 Oscar-Winning Movie Do You Want to See Next?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 10:22:29 -0800

Now that the 2007 Oscars have come and gone, I am anxious to catch up on my movie viewing! Though I've seen most of the winners, there are a few Oscar movies I missed.

What 2007 Oscar winner have you not seen that you really want to see next?

Link Time! 2/22

BuzzSugar — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:09:07 -0800

Stereogum presents the winners of its bald Britney Photoshopping contest.
While Best Week Ever posts a pitch-perfect Spears music-video parody.
And Popwatch tells us that Craig Ferguson refuses kick Britney while she's down.
Mourning "The OC"? The TV Addict rounds up "OCbituaries" from around the Web.
My Old Kentucky Blog posts an astounding number of covers of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."
I can't stop laughing at this "Heroes" parody called "Zeroes" on GiggleSugar, while TV Squad imagines how the cast's "Larry King Live" interview will go.
Film Rotation ponders the possibility of Casino Royale beauty Eva Green playing Wonder Woman.
PopCandy asks: Which TV characters drive you nuts?
Film Experience thinks Pan’s Labyrinth has a shot at sweeping its Oscar nominations. Fingers crossed!
TV with MeeVee has the scoop on auditions for a new reality show about celebrity impersonators.
I Guess I'm Floating features a Rosie Thomas duet with Sufjan Stevens.
StinkyLuLu perfectly sums up my conflicted feelings about Jennifer Hudson’s Dreamgirls performance and Oscar nomination.

Pan's Labyrinth: Gruesome and Amazing

BuzzSugar — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 08:30:45 -0800

Pan’s Labyrinth has been marketed as a “fairy tale for adults,” and perhaps for lack of other categorization, it is. It has fanciful elements that could be compared to stories by Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, but this tale is even darker and more gruesome than many adult stories - fairy tale or otherwise. What it certainly is NOT is a fairy tale for children, though the previews can be slightly misleading. If you've considered bringing a child or even a squeamish adult to this movie, don't. If I saw this movie as a child, I would have never slept again, and I may actually have that problem now.

The film is unbelievably gory and disgusting, yet it is also one of the most wonderful movies I’ve seen in a long time. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, who brought us Hellboy and Blade II, the Spanish-language movie is a fantasy that unfolds in a very real and frightening setting: Franco’s post-Spanish Civil War Spain, 1944. A sense of darkness and desperation permeates the entire film, but it is really a story about a little girl’s journey towards hope, so

Ivana Baquero plays Ofelia, a dreamy young girl who travels with her mother to live with Ofelia's new stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez), at his military outpost in the countryside. The Captain is a coldhearted, ruthlessly cruel man, surrounded by people who live in fear of him. Meanwhile, a group of revolutionaries hiding in the woods are plotting Captain Vidal's downfall. Ofelia tries to stay by her mother, Carmen (Adriana Gil), who is enduring a very difficult pregnancy. Afraid and lonely, Ofelia wanders in the forest near the outpost and discovers an ancient labyrinth. There she meets the “Fauno,” or Pan, a large satyr with a deep voice, at times comforting and then fierce. He informs her that she is actually a princess and that her regal father has been searching for her for ages. In order to get back to her rightful family, she must complete certain tasks dictated by the Fauno. Reality, however, has other things in store, and the rest of the film alternates between the terrifying “real world” unfolding in the Captain’s home and the “other world” where she desperately works toward completing her tasks.

The “other world” is by turns enchanting and horrifying. Yes, there are darling little fairies that flit about Ofelia’s head, but there is also a bloody-fingered monster with eyeballs on his palms who rips the heads off fairies and noisily chomps their bloody skulls. When Ofelia, covered in roach-like insects, encounters a giant frog who literally throws himself up along with his gelatinous innards, I felt like I might just do the same.

The sound design on this movie is remarkable. Every flutter of fairy wings, every singed-paper sound from the Captain's cigarette, and especially the deep timbre of the Fauno’s voice are crisp and clear to a stunning degree. This also means, however, that during a bludgeoning scene, we can hear the process it goes from dull thudding to the wet crunch of bones and blood.

If we were to indeed lump this story into the genre in which Lord of the Rings reigns, there is a key, notable difference: The likes of LOTR or other fantasy stories generally focus on male protagonists who go on adventures to accomplish things, while females are largely irrelevant, thrown in as mild love interests or the harbingers of some message. This story, while grim and macabre, is also beautiful, and the characters who exhibit the most bravery, sacrifice, and cleverness are female. Dark and dismal as Pan's Labyrinth is, the golden thread of Ofelia's determination throughout the plot is unmistakable, and in the end, it is ultimately the story of a little girl who grittily fights her way toward hope and light.

Movie Preview: Pan's Labyrinth

BuzzSugar — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:03:11 -0800

Pan's Labyrinth opens in limited release today, and already the dark fantastical film is earning accolades and award nominations left and right. (Tune in on Tuesday for my review!) Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, the Mexican filmmaker who brought us Hellboy, the haunting but stunning movie tells two stories: a reality set during the Spanish Civil War and a haunting fairy tale. Check out the trailer below.

Oscar Nominee: Pan's Labyrinth for Art Direction

BuzzSugar — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:32:15 -0800

Every week up until the Oscars, I'll be featuring the nominees in the various visual categories. In this final week, I'll be looking at the nominees for best art direction, which encompasses the entire look and feel of a film from the scenery to the lighting. Today's featured movie is Pan's Labyrinth, which, like The Prestige, also scored a nomination for cinematography. Both cinematic crafts were essential in creating the movie's dual world of eerie fantasy and disturbing, battle-strewn reality. To see a gallery of stills from Pan's Labyrinth, read more

View 14 Photos ›

Source, Source, Source, Source, and
Source

Oscar Nominee: Pan's Labyrinth for Cinematography

BuzzSugar — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 07:56:14 -0800

The Oscar nominations are out, and I'm busy seeing movies and filling out my Oscar ballot before the winners are announced on Feb. 25. I want you guys to be prepared, so every week up until the Oscars I'll be featuring the nominees in the various visual categories, starting this week with cinematography.

Today's featured nominee for Achievement in Cinematography is Pan's Labyrinth, the dark fantasy directed by Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro. As Del Toro's cinematographer, Guillermo Navarro was charged with creating two distinct environments: the steely, hopeless reality of post-war Spain and the lush but sinister fantasy world that Ofelia ventures into. To see a gallery of stills, read more

View 14 Photos ›

Source, Source, Source, Source, and
Source

Oscar Buzz: the LA Film Critics Awards

BuzzSugar — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 07:52:00 -0800

The Golden Globe Awards will be handed out tonight, and that's not the only place to find pre-Oscar buzz. On Sunday, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association gave out its 2006 awards, which are also considered early Oscar indicators. The critically acclaimed Letters from Iwo Jima was voted Best Picture of the Year, with The Queen as runner up. For directing, Clint Eastwood was runner up to Paul Greengrass of United 93, and Helen Mirren took home the prize for Best Actress.

To see the rest of the winners and pics of Sacha Baron Cohen, the Little Miss Sunshine team, Forest Whitaker, and more, read more

View 20 Photos ›

BEST ACTRESS: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Runner-up: Penelope Cruz, Volver

ACTOR: Tie – Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat & Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

SCREENPLAY: The Queen by Peter Morgan
Runner-up: Little Miss Sunshine by Michael Arndt

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Luminita Gheorghiu, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Runner-up: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Michael Sheen, The Queen
Runner-up: Sergi López, Pan’s Labyrinth

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: The Lives of Others directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Runner-up: Volver directed by Pedro Almodóvar

DOCUMENTARY/NON-FICTION FILM: An Inconvenient Truth directed by Davis Guggenheim
Runner-up: Darwin’s Nightmare directed by Hubert Sauper

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Eugenio Caballero, Pan’s Labyrinth
Runner-up: Jim Clay, Veronica Falzon & Geoffrey Kirkland, Children of Men

ANIMATION: Happy Feet (George Miller)
Runner-up: Cars (John Lasseter, Joe Ranft)

MUSIC: Alexandre Desplat, The Painted Veil and The Queen
Runner-up: Thomas Newman, The Good German and Little Children

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Emmanuel Lubezki, Children of Men
Runner-up: Tom Stern, Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima

NEW GENERATION:
Michael Arndt (screenwriter), Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (co-directors) – Little Miss Sunshine

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Robert Mulligan (previously announced)

INDEPENDENT/EXPERIMENTAL:
Old Joy directed by Kelly Reichardt & In Between Days directed by So Yong Kim

Source

Link Time! 2/27

BuzzSugar — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:37:09 -0800

TV Cocktail fills us in on the new "Grey's Anatomy" magazine. Yes, really.
PopWatch examines the many, many things wrong with the British reality show Killing Brigitte Nielsen.
Film Experience’s "Panscakes" (Pan’s Labyrinth-themed pancakes!) get a 10 on the awesome-o-meter.
Also awesome: Best Week Ever posts a tribute to Dwight Schrute in song.
Yes, Tyra Banks touched Katharine McPhee's breasts, and this Rolling Stone Rock & Roll Daily video is more awkward than you think.
Idolator makes me wonder why anyone would want to interview "American Idol" contestant Sundance Head's dad.
Since I’m not reviewing the film, watch The Movie Blog’s video critique of The Number 23.
TVgasm has the scoop on a new MTV series that, I've gotta say, sounds a lot like "Instant Star."
In biopic news, expect a Darwin movie in the future, along with films about Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, and Napoleon, Cinematical reports.
Before tonight's "Veronica Mars," the TV Addict asks for your bets on who killed Dean O'Dell.
Pop Candy leads us to a fun list of great movie monologues.
TV Squad catches us up on this week's episode of "24."

Buzz News Roundup, 1/19

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 15:25:08 -0800

Al Pacino is set to play artist Salvador Dali, says Hollywood Reporter.
For his next album, Kanye West is collaborating with Chris Martin and John Brion, according to Billboard.
The second night of "American Idol" got more viewers than all of the other networks combined, reports Media Life.
The CW is readying a new "Top Model," plus a Pussycat Dolls reality show, says Zap2It.
Also, The CW is putting free episodes online of "Beauty and the Geek," "Supernatural," "Veronica Mars," "One Tree Hill," and other shows, the Futon Critic reports.
According to Variety, "Lost" will start producing stand-alone Webisodes this summer.
Pitchfork has news on U.S. tours from Lily Allen and The Pipettes.
Variety says Pan’s Labyrinth is doing well with Latino audiences and film critics but wonders if this will translate to widespread commercial success.
Bjork is tapping Timbaland and Antony of Antony and the Johnsons for her next album, says NME.