FeatureFilm's Xanga

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:34:24 GMT

in the next couple of months, i will have some spare time on my hands. so stay tuned - i'm gonna revamp this sucker.

oddly enough, i think the two best date movies (notwithstanding the obvious Date Movie) are documentaries. i would pick March of the Penguins and Mad Hot Ballroom as the two best films to see with your significant other.

maybe it's because i've grown more realistic in my view of love. or maybe it's because romantic comedies released in recent memory, have simply stunk.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Wed, 23 Nov 2005 20:29:52 GMT

what's your favourite book to film adaptation and why?

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 19:56:58 GMT

Michael Kang's film, The Motel, opens Toronto's Reel Asian Film Festival on Wednesday November 23rd.

The script, adapted by director Kang from a novel by Ed Lin, breathes new life into the coming-of-age story. The motel setting provides glimpses of a number of marginalized people, and a plot line about an autobiographical story Ernest has written is deftly interwoven without being precious.

Kang finds an eerie, banal beauty in the anonymous small town. Best of all, he knows that smart filmgoers don't need a lot of explanation or backstory. Images suffice.

Wednesday (November 23) at the Bloor Cinema.

Read the full review.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 17:08:17 GMT

Check out The Envelope at the LATimes for a preliminary look at the Academy Awards race.

At this early stage, which film do you think will win Best Picture? Which film would you like to see win Best Picture? Don't think. Just answer...quickly...off the top of your head. Those are always the most interesting answers.

I think it will be a tight race between Munich and Memoirs of a Geisha. Brokeback Mountain will definitely be a major contender, but I somehow can't visualize The Academy being overly fond of a gay cowboy movie.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 16:24:35 GMT

David Cronenberg will develop a new series for HBO based on his film, Dead Ringers.

I wonder what the target audience will be for a series about twin gynecologists anyhow?

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:10:31 GMT

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star in a project based on the nonfiction best-seller "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking."

Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for writing the drugs saga "Traffic," is adapting and directing the Universal Pictures project.

"Blink," published in January, is a story about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. Author Malcolm Gladwell posited that when you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. "Blink" is a story about those two seconds when instant conclusions reached by people are really powerful, really important and, occasionally, really good.

For those of you who have read the book, how do you think they will structure it as a feature film?

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 04:11:48 GMT

Judging from the trailer of Steven Spielberg's Munich, it looks like Oscar season starts on December 23rd. It reminds me a little of Schindler's List.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 21:37:35 GMT

Screenwriters check this out. I think it may challenge Final Draft on a few levels.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:31:30 GMT

i've never been a huge fan of Viggo Mortensen. i thought he was kinda fetching when he had a roll in the hay with Diane Lane for A Walk On The Moon.

however, the below shirt may have just changed my mind:

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 20:18:49 GMT

I hate to be boring and concur with those critics who saw the film at Cannes and praised it, but the best film I saw at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival was David Cronenberg's A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE.

The film is definitely Cronenberg's most commercial and yet most perfectly executed oeuvre to date. But the perfect execution almost ruins it, because what I like most about Cronenberg's directing style is that he never seems afraid to get messy. Whether it's having Elias Koteas and James Spader share an auto-erotic encounter in CRASH or Jennifer Jason Leigh trying to plug an umbi-cord into Jude Law's spinal port in eXistenZ, I love that Cronenberg loves to take his audience on darkly macabre journeys.

Undoubtedly, some will regard A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE as a political statement (one that the Bush administration would be fond of), but I think the core of the film is about the human capacity for kindness or violence and the kind of willpower it takes to choose to be kind instead of violent. It's ultimately an optimistic film that tells audiences that it is possible to overcome violence, but that the price can sometimes be very high.

In terms of the acting, Viggo Mortensen delivers his most nuance performance yet; Maria Bello finally gets to showcase her acting chops instead of her physical attributes; and William Hurt has a brilliant turn as a crime boss that would even make Tony Soprano proud.