Do you get the feeling sometimes that all screenplays are written by the same person? Well, a number of people specializing in their genre, whether romcom or action. Change a location, character neurosis or evil villian and basically BOOM, ya got yourself a movie!
How refreshing, then, to see filmmakers really push the envelope to make unique, ambitious stories that not only put faith of knowledge in their audience, but also rely on their actors to convey alternate ways of telling a story.
The Place Beyond the Pines
Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes
Not a film whose plot can be described in a succinct sentence. In fact, I can't imagine the pitch meeting for this one. This is three stories told not in flashback or the ever - popular entwined lives device, but in a torch pass. Story One - Gosling. Gosling passes to Cooper for Story Two. Cooper in turn passes it to young actors Dane DeHaan & Emory Cohen for Story Three. Each piece of this movie could have been its own film, complex and layered - the overall themes of fathers and sons and legacy are rich in each one and clearly the guy carrying the heaviest torch is Cooper. This guy's good. Very, very, good. And as with many impossibly attractive actors sometimes we forget their talent (poor guy). I've been a fan for years (hello, Will Tippen!) and his conflicted and ambitious Avery Cross is the storyline I was most riveted by. Not taking anything away from Gosling, who for some reason is getting all the buzz, but this is Cooper's movie. The more I think about this one, the more I love it - for the questions it raises, for its richness, visual thrills and ambitiousness.
7 Psychopaths
Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken
Midnight Madness! After last year's most disappointing MM debut (the neither scary or good Kill List) I am betting hard on this one. Knowing 7 Psychopaths comes to us from the same writer / director as In Bruges only raises the stakes. Buzz has been unreal. The cast! The trailer! This was probably the film I was most looking forward to this year. You're scared now right? Wondering if a movie could possibly live up to the hype. You heard it here. IT TOTALLY DOES. The script is crackerjack and when lines of such potency are delivered to perfection by the likes of Farrell, Rockwell, Harrelson, Walken and the rest of Psychopaths you are in for a ride. What's it about? Who cares! All sorts of stuff. Nothing. Everything. Friendship. Loss. Confidence. Dogs. Just go. I'm going again. And you know I don't see movies again unless there's a special and compelling reason. I'll go on record saying Sam Rockwell's performance is my compelling reason - this guy is so underrated I get angry. Watch Moon and tell me I'm not right (then I will 7 Psychopath you). A special treat last night, especially for MM diehards, was a heavily star studded screening. Pretty much everyone was there - Christopher Walken in his grandpa pants, Woody in his flip flops, Colin & Sam brothers in arms and the ladies, Olga Kurylenko & Abbie Cornish in rather stunning geometrically innovative dresses. An awesome night all around.
And now, off I go to A Liar's Biography - a fictionalized account of Graham Chapman's life. It's Monty Python! Laughs! I'm in for laughs!
Tomorrow, Mom Comes to Town and, it's more Bradley Cooper and ... I. Can't. Discuss. Ewan. It's Ewan tomorrow.
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