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Where the Wild Things Are: A Passionate Ode to Childhood

BuzzSugar — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:30:00 -0700

There's been a bit of a controversy over how to market Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book, Where The Wild Things Are. Is it for kids? Adults? Adult hipsters?

The answer is anyone who wants to feel what it's like to be a child, and not in the fun-loving, no-responsibilities way. As adults, we tend to forget the insecurity and fears we had as kids, which the film's young character Max is in the throes of. There's just enough exposition before the fantasy begins: Max has a single mom (Catherine Keener) and an older sister who has recently outgrown him. His first few acts at home show his innocence and the savage emotions under the surface. He knows it as being "wild."

Where the Wild Things Are isn't a heavy-handed allegory, or an edgy children's movie; it's a loyal tribute to the way kids think and feel. To see what else I thought of the film, just read more.

Max reaches the world of the wild things after throwing a particularly heinous fit, prompting his mother to yell, "You're out of control!" After running away, Max finds himself on a boat that finally brings him to a strange land. This is where the wild things are. The creatures Jonze has created are aesthetic wonders: creepy, hostile, and huggable at once. These aren't Jim Henson's Muppets, but real characters, led by Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini). The rest of the group is comprised of Lauren Ambrose as aloof KW, Catherine O'Hara as prickly Judith, Paul Dano as timid Alexander, Chris Cooper as Douglas, and Forest Whitaker as Ira.

Each creature has a fully realized personality, with flaws and varying temperaments; their faces are so emotive and their dialogue so human that their scenes with Max are as real as those with his mother. This group is not easily classified as friend or foe - they're dysfunctional in their relationships and don't always treat each other well. One of the most successful elements of the movie is the dialogue of the wild things, which is rooted in Max's head.

In many ways, screenwriter Dave Eggers's job was tougher than Spike Jonze's, because it's imperative to remember the way children think. Max's interactions with Carol and his new clan are made up of the kind of things a kid would hear from his parents and peers and then internalize. In fact, in the wild world, Max declares himself king to bring order, and he summons up speeches from the authority figures that he's pulling away from in his real life. Naturally, he's too young to recognize how his subverted position is significant.

Max's relationship with Carol is most telling. As the de facto leader of the group who can't handle sadness, loneliness, or jealousy, he acts out as a mirror of Max while still being his own character. The richness of Carol and the creature cast stays with you; when Max has to say goodbye to his friends, your heart breaks.

Jonze impressed me with his non-conformity; in another movie, Max would have demonstrated the grand lessons he learned from his time on the island, but in this one, he doesn't have to learn anything. He just gets to feel and experience and appreciate his emotionally fragmented new friends. It's devastating as a viewer, especially if you can put yourself back in that childlike place when your feelings were so raw and simple.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Schwimmer Puts Trust in Catherine Keener and Clive Owen

BuzzSugar — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:30:21 -0700

Behold, another project from a Friends alum: David Schwimmer will direct the upcoming film Trust, a drama about two parents dealing with the aftermath when their daughter becomes the target of an online sexual predator. Clive Owen and Catherine Keener will play the parents; newcomer Liana Liberato will star as their daughter.

This will be Schwimmer's second time in the director's chair, though the subject matter is a far cry from Run Fatboy Run. The plot sounds both intense and timely, and I have full faith that Keener and Owen will bring the required solid performances - especially after seeing Clive shine in a fatherly role in The Boys Are Back.

Are you glad that Clive is continuing to pick up deeper projects, or would you prefer he go back to playing the dark and mysterious guy we met in movies like Sin City? Be sure to check out my exclusive interview with Clive, and if you love Friends, explore the group dedicated to the show in the Buzz Community!

The Soloist: The Lead Actors Are the High Notes

BuzzSugar — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:30:08 -0700

I'll be honest with you: If it stars Robert Downey Jr., I'm probably going to like it, at least a little. Such is the case with director Joe Wright's (Atonement) new movie, The Soloist. Honestly, I'm not sure I would like this movie as much were it not for this excellent casting choice. It's amazing, the guy never disappoints, and in this movie he is a revelation. Downey digs deep to find the humanity and nuance in this true story and knocks his performance out of the park.

His costar Jamie Foxx gets an "A" for effort for fading into his character and successfully achieving what is no doubt a difficult job: realistically portraying a mentally ill man. For the most part, this is Downey's show, though the two actors work well together to give this already sentimental movie its heart. That said, it's not without some missteps. To find out what they are, read more.

The movie's plot is made up of the kind of stuff that might be referred to as "Oscar bait." Downey plays Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, a middle-aged divorcee who appears discontent despite his relatively successful writing career. One day, Lopez meets a homeless, violin-playing schizophrenic man named Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx). He discovers that Ayers was once a talented cello player at  Juilliard, and Lopez begins writing columns about this virtuoso wandering the streets. These columns captivate the city.

Wright's visuals are slick and the movie is so stylish and pristine that the effect, at times, is emotionally alienating. He's also a little trigger-happy with the middlebrow symbolism (pigeons take flight like doves, etc.). Also, there are a lot of themes coursing through this movie - homelessness and mental illness, friendship, grace, the meaning of life, the state of the American newspaper, the virtue of commitment, the healing power of music, and on and on. Just like the freeway system in LA, Wright's movie is sprawling and congested.

So while the film itself has lofty ambitions, it's the friendship between the two men that keeps this thing grounded. The closer Lopez gets to Ayers emotionally, the more he's drawn into the world of the mentally ill who inhabit parts of the city most people choose to ignore. We spend a lot of time on skid row and witness the tragic figures who migrate to the area (real-life people from this part of LA play extras). As Lopez witnesses the reality of life on the street, it becomes harder for him to resist committing to friendship with Ayers.

Thankfully the director practices restraint here and avoids easy answers when it comes to the plight of the homeless. Instead, catharsis comes slowly in the form of the budding relationship Downey and Foxx so convincingly portray. Lopez works hard to bring music back into Ayers's life and finds out the hard way that saving someone is easier said than done. The question toward the middle of the movie becomes: how do you help someone who doesn't want to be helped? Instead of railing against a system that would let the most vulnerable among us suffer indignities on the street, the movie's central relationship is a reminder that a lot of good things begin when we simply take a second to notice each other.

Photos courtesy of Paramount

Synecdoche, New York: Frustrating, Unsettling, and Worth It

BuzzSugar — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:15:16 -0800

Synecdoche, New York, is a haunting film. In the weeks since I saw it, I'm not sure a day has gone by that I haven't thought about it. It's also a humongous, confusing mess. But I'm willing to forgive Charlie Kaufman that; the high points are too high not to.

As the writer of such films as Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kaufman has become known for his surreal - and, yet, ultimately, very real - explorations of humanity. Synecdoche, New York, his directorial debut, is maybe his most precise work on that theme, tracing his main character through years of middle age, declining health, and the potent desire to do something while there's still time. Kaufman may be suffering from a bit of that desire himself, as he tosses all kinds of twists into his story, some of which lead it astray. But that doesn't keep it from being a moving mood piece of a film.

Synecdoche, New York actually has a mostly logical main story: Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden Cotard, a local theater director producing a lowish-rent production of Death of a Salesman and struggling to maintain his marriage with his more-famous wife, Adele (Catherine Keener). When she takes off for Germany with their daughter and Caden receives a MacArthur grant, he decides to stage a giant-scale theater piece about life (yes, just that: life), setting it inside a towering replica of New York. Everything else spins off from there, so just read more.

Beyond that general outline, trying to make sense of Synecdoche, New York is largely a losing battle. It's best to just take the developments as they come - oh, of course Caden is seeing himself as a TV cartoon; naturally, that's his daughter all grown up and covered in tattoos. The plot is not necessarily the point; it's more about what the plot evokes. And what it evokes (other than some powerful, sweeping images) is a deeply unsettling feeling about what it means to grow up and grow old. Illness is a major presence, as Caden stumbles into affliction after affliction - some from unfortunate coincidence, some from unknown cause. Time is practically a character of its own, with Kaufman occasionally fixing the story at a given point and then drifting from it, letting his audience wonder if it's been weeks, months, or (in one case) 17 years since a particular event.

Not everything works: The subplots involving Caden's family life and sexuality feel particularly flimsy and occasionally even uncomfortable. But in the world of Caden's theater piece, things start to click. Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, and Emily Watson deserve a chunk of the credit for that, as they deftly play the three women drifting in and out of Caden's life. Each of their performances is subtle and yet memorable, a particularly notable feat considering that before the film is over, they've each played a version of the same character. And to say too much about Tom Noonan's role would spoil it, but suffice to say it speaks directly to the movie's central theme of identity.

Watching Synecdoche, New York can be a frustrating experience. There's so much that doesn't make sense, that doesn't fit that just doesn't seem possible. And yet at the end, as I watched the credits roll over a gorgeous, haunting tune (Jon Brion's "Little Person"), I felt like I'd just had a cathartic cry or some really intense therapy. Synecdoche, New York has its stumbles, faults, and flaws, but in the end, the experience is worth the trouble.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Movie Preview: Synecdoche, New York

BuzzSugar — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:30:08 -0700

Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, has been generating positive buzz ever since it premiered at Cannes this year. Time Magazine calls it "A miracle movie," while Variety claims it is "a wildly ambitious and gravely serious contemplation of life. The picture exerts power and artistic mystery." If this new trailer is any indication, I am starting to see what all the fuss is about.

Philip Seymour Hoffman leads a hugely talented cast (including Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis and many more) in this story in which "[a] theater director (Hoffman) struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play."

Synecdoche, New York will start with a limited release on Oct. 24. To check out the trailer, read more.

trailer de Synecdoche new york
Uploaded by masalladeorion

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

TV Tonight: An American Crime on Showtime

BuzzSugar — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:00:11 -0700

An American Crime, which premieres tonight on Showtime, is certainly not going to be an easy film to watch. Even the trailer gives me the creeps. But that may be a credit to the performances in the film, which stars a handful of my favorite actors: Ellen Page, Catherine Keener, James Franco, and Bradley Whitford.

The film - which showed at Sundance in 2007 before being purchased by Showtime - is based on the true story of an Indiana woman (Keener) who abused a teenager in her care (Sylvia, played by Page) in 1960s Indianapolis. Keener's character, Gertrude, becomes a mother figure to Sylvia, who's living with Gertrude and her children while her parents are off traveling with a carnival. But somehow, Sylvia ends up on Gertrude's bad side - a side with vindictive acts and horrifying consequences.

Some dialogue is taken from court transcripts about the case, which are chilling in the trailer and must be even more so over the course of a full movie. I'm not sure if I can sit through this movie without it turning my stomach, but the quality of actors involved is so high, I might give it a shot. The movie premieres at 9 p.m. tonight and will be available On Demand starting May 11. To check out the trailer, just read more.

Hamlet 2: The Teen Comedy

BuzzSugar — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:30:00 -0700

Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.
Variety brings us news of a little something called Hamlet 2 (yes, as in a sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet), a film starring Steve Coogan and Catherine Keener. The project will be the first produced by Eric Eisner's (son of former Disney chief Michael Eisner) production company L+E.

What's the deal?
The movie is a high school comedy focusing on "a teacher who tries to save his drama department by writing a sequel to William Shakespeare's Hamlet." One of the co-writers is Pam Brady, who has written all sorts of funny (or at least half-funny) stuff like the "South Park" movie, Team America, and Hot Rod.

Could be cool.
As Cinematical points out, the teen romp 10 Things I Hate About You is based on another Shakespearean work (and if you can name the title you can win points!), and that's a fun movie. Maybe this will be hilarious and just as fun.

Now the question is, what's next? What Shakespearean will be fodder for another teen flick?

Movie Preview: Sean Penn's Into the Wild

BuzzSugar — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:30:00 -0700

Oh, Sean Penn. I loved him in Mystic River so very much - that was a great career move. And now he's gone and directed an adaptation of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild and it's scheduled to open September 21. It's a good pick, really. A nice, bestselling pick. But this trailer promises little more than ooey-gooey dude-soul-search cheesiness. It stars Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless, an ambitious young man who graduates college, gives all his money away and hitchhikes to Alaska. Along the way he finds some friends and... he finds himself.

The trailer features some comforting familiar faces, like Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden and Vince Vaughn. But the overall tone of this is so overly sentimental, if there were a Lifetime Television for Men, this would be a made-for-TV movie on that channel. You might see what I mean when you watch the preview, so read more

Source

What to TiVo: Friday

BuzzSugar — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:50:00 -0700

ABC is new with Supernanny, Ugly Betty, and 20/20
CBS is new with Ghost Whisperer, Medium, and NUMB3RS
FOX is new with Brothers, 'Til Death, and Dollhouse
NBC is new with Law & Order and Dateline NBC
The CW is new with Smallville and has a repeat of America's Next Top Model
MTV is new with My Super Sweet Sixteen and My Super Psycho Sweet 16
TLC is new with Say Yes to the Dress
USA is new with Monk
E! is new with The Soup
Late-night highlights include Amy Poehler on a repeat The Late Show With David Letterman on CBS; Colin Firth and First Lady Michelle Obama on The Jay Leno Show on NBC; Robin Williams on a repeat of The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien on NBC; Catherine Keener on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC; Julia Louis-Dreyfus on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson on CBS; and Kristen Wiig on a repeat of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on NBC