BuzzSugar

The Informant!: Funny If You Can Focus!

BuzzSugar — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:00:38 -0700

What would happen if Michael Scott were dropped into the movie Michael Clayton? If you're wondering what to expect from Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!, the visual of Michael bumbling his way through a corporate thriller is a good place to start.

The movie is campy right from the start, almost making an announcement as cheesy music plays over the neon bubble letters of the credits. There's even the rarely seen "Matt Damon IN... The Informant" - Soderbergh isn't trying to hide anything here, though the move is set in the early '90s despite the '70s ambiance. While many of the jokes hit you over the head, don't expect the key plot elements to have the same effect.

To see what I mean, just read more.

Matt Damon literally transforms himself into Mark Whitacre, the vice president of real-life lysine developing company ADM. On the surface, Whitacre fits right into the upper-middle class Midwestern stereotype; he's an overweight, mustachioed man who sits down to dinner with his wife and sons every night. In what seems to be a sudden attack of conscience, Whitacre takes it upon himself to rat out ADM's price-fixing schemes to two FBI agents (played by Scott Bakula and a straight-laced Joel McHale). The more involved Whitacre gets with the FBI, the more eager he is to help take down the company that made him rich. The agents (and the audience) quickly begin to wonder - what's in it for him?

Most of my laugh-out-loud moments came from Whitacre's inner monologue. At first his thoughts give us clues about the decisions he makes - he seems to be obsessed with John Grisham novels and conspiracy theories, so it's no surprise that he's relishing in his involvement with the FBI. As time goes on, however, his stream of consciousness shifts from wacky observations about the world at large to ways he can manipulate it to his own benefit.

Soderbergh has a solid lineup of supporting comedians (Patton Oswalt and Tony Hale also make appearances) but Matt Damon is the mastermind here. He shines through all that hair, makeup, and extra pounds to deliver a highly enjoyable performance that keeps you guessing. Damon's no stranger to comedy, but his role as Whitacre is a far cry from Stuck On You.

The movie has a sluggish start, and loses its focus towards the middle - but try not to doze off, since almost every loose end is eventually tied up. While only a manageable 108 minutes, the film still feels like it's a half hour longer than it should be. If I had been watching it at home, I may have been tempted to turn it off, which is a shame since many of the laughs and most of the excitement happens in the end.

There's fun to be had here, if you manage your expectations. This is not your typical comedy: the humor is dry, but the laughs are there - just try not to lose focus along the way.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Damon and Douglas to Play Lovers in Liberace Movie

BuzzSugar — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:15:46 -0700

Bet you never thought you'd see Matt Damon and Michael Douglas coupled up on-screen, but get ready. Steven Soderbergh has confirmed that Douglas will play Liberace in his upcoming film about the life and death of the popular 1950s performer. Damon is taking on the role of Scott Thorsen, Liberace's assistant and boyfriend who eventually revealed Liberace's sexuality to the public.

At the Deauville Film Festival, Soderbergh said, "We've already done some costume and wardrobe tests on Michael, and they're very, very, very good. I swear to you, Michael amazed me. He crushed it . . . Matt accepted the challenge. But I have to say I'd already convinced him to gain 30 pounds for The Informant."

I saw The Informant last week (more on that later), and it was really refreshing to see Matt playing an atypical character from what we're used to seeing - I'm looking forward to watching him spread his wings again. Then again, I might be more dazzled by Michael Douglas covered in sequins.

Moneyball Movie Gets Another Chance Thanks to Aaron Sorkin

BuzzSugar — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:30:25 -0700

The Moneyball movie that got grounded by Sony just days before it was supposed to start shooting may yet make it to a big screen near you. Aaron Sorkin has been hired to rewrite the script for the film, which is based on Michael Lewis's nonfiction book.

The script has been the major point of contention: Sony halted production on the film because it didn't like some changes Steven Soderbergh - who was then signed on to direct the film - had made. Soderbergh will no longer be involved with the movie in any capacity.

Brad Pitt is still signed on to star as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's who took an unusual approach to evaluating ballplayers' talent. One of Soderbergh's plans was to have actual ballplayers and managers appear in the film to talk about Beane, but it's unclear if that will still happen under Sorkin.

With Sports Night, Sorkin proved he can get inside a sports story. Will he be the one who can get Moneyball back off the ground? Or does this sound like a bad marriage between a dry subject and Sorkin's wordy writing? And if Sorkin's script does get the go-ahead, who should direct this thing?

Source and Getty

Weekend Reading: What the Heck Happened to That Brad Pitt Baseball Movie?

BuzzSugar — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:30:28 -0700

Last weekend, the entertainment industry was shocked when Sony pulled the plug on Steven Soderbergh's baseball movie that was going to star Brad Pitt - just days before the movie was supposed to start shooting.

Based on a bestseller by Michael Lewis, Moneyball was going to be a feature-length film about the true story of Oakland Athletics' general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) who put together a successful baseball team based on a new way of measuring a player's skill via stats. It might sound kind of dry, but having read both the book and an early, leaked version of the script, I can vouch for it being a compelling story. So, I'm officially bummed that this project appears to be stuck in development hell and may never hit the big screen.

High-profile projects with big-name stars and directors don't get swiftly killed all that often - so what the heck happened? Two articles this week shed some light on the whole debacle, and they're fascinating reads if you're interested in this project and/or the inner workings of the Hollywood studio system.

First, Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal gives her side of the story in this LA Times piece. Apparently, Soderbergh made some drastic, last-minute changes to the script:

"I've wanted to work with Steven forever, because he's simply a great filmmaker," Pascal told me today. "But the draft he turned in wasn't at all what we'd signed up for. He wanted to make a dramatic reenactment of events with real people playing themselves. I'd still work with Steven in a minute, but in terms of this project, he wanted to do the film in a different way than we did."

For more on what happened with Moneyball, just read more.

Then there's this New York Times article that fills in details on some of Soderbergh's changes, some of which were made to make Major League Baseball happier with the film's accuracy:

What baseball saw as accurate, Sony executives saw as being too much a documentary. Mr. Soderbergh, for instance, planned to film interviews with some of the people who were connected to the film’s story. The executives, who had just seen disappointing results from The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Year One, rebelled.

As of now, the film is mostly considered dead, though there's thought that a different director could come in to make a movie out of the version of the script that Sony originally approved. After reading the stories, do you think Soderbergh was in the wrong for making the last-minute changes? Or do you think Sony got too skittish about a movie that still could have been good? And if Moneyball ever does get made, would you go see it?

WireImage and Source

Movie Preview: Matt Damon Is a Hilarious Informant

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:35:47 -0700

This trailer for the comedy The Informant has, I think, given me perma-grin. A slightly chubbier Matt Damon portrays Mark Whitacre, a real-life "Ivy League Ph.D. who was a rising star at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s. . . . Whitacre secretly gathered hundreds of hours of video and audio tapes over several years to present to the FBI which became one of the largest price fixing cases in history."

Damon re-teams with his Oceans Eleven (and Twelve and Thirteen) director Steven Soderbergh and his buddy George Clooney is an executive producer. It looks like, once again, Soderbergh got some great results from Damon, who is absolutely hilarious as this unlikely informant, a regular guy who has a bit of trouble being smooth and cool. But the best thing about it is that Damon plays the guy as bumbling without making him seem somehow mentally deficient. Too many actors don't seem to know how to be funny without making their characters seem stupid, but Damon makes his Mark seem intelligent as well as endearingly human.

The preview says The Informant will open in September. To check out the funny trailer, read more.

Source: IMDB

2009 Tribeca Film Festival Spotlight: The Girlfriend Experience

BuzzSugar — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:00:43 -0700

I've been perusing the long list of interesting-looking movies scheduled for this year's Tribeca Film Festival, which starts this week. Some of them, like The Girlfriend Experience, are already earning some buzz, and I'm anxious to find out what festivalgoers think once they've screened.

Director Steven Soderbergh's latest movie stars real-life porn star Sasha Grey as a high-end prostitute in New York. For her clients, though, she doesn't just provide sex - she creates the whole "girlfriend experience." But at the same time, she has an actual boyfriend of her own. The trailer includes no dialogue at all, just some great drumming in the background. It's all slick-looking apartments, fancy stores, and lovely town cars until you realize this young, glamorous woman is having sex with clients that include men who wear diapers. Yeesh. The movie looks fascinating, even though the subject matter has a bit of an ick factor.

The Girlfriend Experience hits theaters May 22. To watch the trailer for yourself, read more.

Source

Would You Go to the Theater For a Four-Hour Movie?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:30:40 -0800

For a few weeks now, Steven Soderbergh's super-long (over four hours) biopic about Che Guevara has been playing in select cities. In some theaters here in San Francisco, the two parts of the film are screened back-to-back with an intermission between them.

That's a long time in the theater (or . . . anywhere) for one movie.

Would you sit through a movie this long in the theater?

Photo courtesy of IFC

Weekend Reading: The History of Sundance

BuzzSugar — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:30:05 -0800

This year marks the 25th anniversary for the Sundance Film Festival, which is about as long as some of us have been alive. It's easy to take for granted the fact that this festival held in a snowy little Utah town wasn't always the influential mega-event it is today. Recently the LA Times had an interesting retrospective about the festival's origins and the way it revolutionized independent film.

Some interesting nuggets:

Steven Soderbergh's debut feature film is partly responsible for the festival's success. Director Bryan Singer reminisces, "Sex, Lies, and Videotape made guys like me go, 'If I can get into the Sundance Film Festival, I'll have a shot at a career.'"
Aw, Kevin Smith was working as a convenience store clerk when he brought his little movie Clerks to Sundance. He says of the heady experience, "It was basically me showing up in Utah and the Mormon God saying, 'I am going to grant you every wish you ever had, including some you never thought of.'"
Also, Smith tells the reporter that Clerks was made for $27,575.
Originally the festival was called The Utah/U.S. Film Festival but after Robert Redford's gang took over in 1989, some changes were made. "Organizers began to shift the festival's focus toward contemporary films that took storytelling risks."
The article asserts that "nobody embodies the go-for-broke moviemaking ingenuity now commonly associated with Sundance entries more than. . . Robert Rodriguez." Apparently Rodriquez (director of Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Sin City) raised money for one of his movies by "volunteering for experimental clinical drug testing." Hard core.

Photo courtesy of Sundance

Movie Preview: Benicio Del Toro in Che

BuzzSugar — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:30:21 -0800

"How does it feel to be a symbol?"
Che: "A symbol of what?"

Director Steven Soderbergh's lengthy biopic of Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, collectively known as Che, will reportedly release in two parts: The Argentine will open in limited release on Dec. 12, with the second part, Guerrilla, following in January. The reception of the unfinished four-hour production that screened at Cannes was somewhat mixed (Variety's Todd McCarthy claims that Soderbergh has "withheld any suggestion of why the charismatic doctor, fighter, diplomat, diarist and intellectual theorist became and remains such a legendary figure; if anything, Che seems diminished by the way he’s portrayed here"). However, praise for Benicio Del Toro's frank, unflinching portrayal of Che is plentiful - even in the less-than-positive reviews.

Now there's a full-length US trailer, which uses dialogue sparsely, mostly allowing the powerful visuals to speak for themselves. It looks brutal, but it's also something I will simply have to see. To watch the trailer, read more.

Source

Ready For a 3-D Rock 'n' Roll Musical Version of Cleopatra?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:30:56 -0700

Yes, let's review those facts:

Director Steven Soderbergh is planning a movie about Egyptian queen Cleopatra.
It will be a live-action 3-D movie.
It will also be a rock 'n' roll musical.
Soderbergh is hoping to get Catherine Zeta-Jones to play "Cleo" and Hugh Jackman to play her lover, Marc Antony.

After the initial "whaaa?" reaction, I'm warming to this idea, especially because the band Guided by Voices has apparently already written the music for the movie. What do you think? Could you see this working, or does it sound like a big hot mess?

Source