Late To The Party : “The Witch”

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Expectations, dear friend, are a fickle mistress indeed. They have the capacity to elevate something unseen to undeserved heights of wonder and amazement or, just as easily, to drag it down into the murky depths of awfulness. Especially these days, when everyone not only has an opinion but is sharing it online, once-innocuous phrases like “I thought this was pretty good” or “that just wasn’t my cup of tea” have become positively loaded and can trigger “flame wars” that rage for weeks.

Of course, one advantage to “taking a pass” on a film in theaters and waiting for it to hit Blu-ray/DVD/streaming services is that you can get a general consensus as to what most folks think about it before deciding whether or not to invest and/or waste your time on it. True, there are times when everybody —or at least damn near everybody — is wrong (shit, look at…

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I, Daniel Blake Wins At Cannes And Americans Ask, “Who Is Ken Loach And Who Does He Play For?”

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The winners of this year’s Cannes Film Festival have just been announced!

As I look over these winners and think about the rather muted reviews that came out of Cannes this year, I have to ask: Is it just me or is 2016 shaping up to be a fairly blah year for the movies?

I mean, just think about last year at this time. Everyone at the Cannes Film Festival was excited over Carol. People were still talking about how much they loved Brooklyn and End of The Tour at Sundance. Both Mad Max: Fury Road and Ex Machina were playing in theaters. Inside Out was on the verge of being released and people were whispering that Straight Outta Compton might actually be a great movie. There was a lot to be excited about!

This year, however, it’s just like, “Who cares?” Even the excitement that some people have for Nate Parker’s Birth of a Nation and Martin Scorsese’s Silence feels more obligatory than sincere.

(Did Sasha Stone go to Cannes this year? I know I could check the Awards Daily web site but, as of late, reading Awards Daily has become almost as tedious as reading the Daily Kos. But I mention Stone specifically because she epitomizes something that I’ve noticed about almost all of the big names in the online film community. They are currently more concerned with bitching about this meaningless and stupid election than in talking about movies. Even when they do talk about movies, it’s always in relation to this election. BLEH! Political situations are only temporary. Movies are forever.)

Anyway, just from what I did hear back from Cannes, I’m looking forward to seeing Personal Shopper, Elle, The Neon Demon, Toni Edrmann, and American Honey. I doubt I’ll get a chance to see the Palme D’or winner because it’s a Ken Loach film and Ken Loach films rarely get much distribution in the U.S.

In fact, when Ken Loach won the Palme d’Or (and this is his second time to win), he immediately started trending on twitter. In the UK, he was trending because people were saying, “Ken Loach won!” In the US, he was trending because everyone who is not a member of Film Twitter was saying, “Who is Ken Loach and who does he play for?”

(As for how this will affect the upcoming Oscar race, it probably won’t. With the exception of the year that Tree of Life won the Palme d’Or and then went on to to score a best picture nomination, Cannes is usually ignored by the Oscar voters.)

Anyway, here’s the winners!

COMPETITION

Palme d’Or: “I, Daniel Blake” (Ken Loach, U.K.)

Grand Prix: “It’s Only the End of the World” (Xavier Dolan, Canada-France)

Director (tie): Olivier Assayas, “Personal Shopper” (France), and Cristian Mungiu, “Graduation” (Romania)

Actor: Shahab Hosseini, “The Salesman” (Iran)

Actress: Jaclyn Jose, “Ma ‘Rosa” (Philippines)

Jury Prize: Andrea Arnold, “American Honey” (U.K.-U.S.)

Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi, “The Salesman” (Iran)

OTHER PRIZES

Palme d’Honneur: Jean-Pierre Léaud

Camera d’Or: “Divines” (Houda Benyamina, France-Qatar)

Short Films Palme d’Or: “Timecode” (Juanjo Jimenez, Spain)

Special Mention – Short Films Palme d’Or: “The Girl Who Danced With the Devil” (Joao Paulo Miranda Maria, Brazil)

Ecumenical Jury Prize: “It’s Only the End of the World” (Xavier Dolan, Canada-France)

UN CERTAIN REGARD

Un Certain Regard Prize: “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki” (Juho Kuosmanen, Finland)

Jury prize: “Harmonium” (Koji Fukada, Japan)

Director: Matt Ross, “Captain Fantastic” (United States)

Screenplay: Delphine and Muriel Coulin, “The Stopover” (France)

Special Jury Prize: Michael Dudok de Wit, “The Red Turtle” (France-Japan)

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT

Art Cinema Award: “Wolf and Sheep” (Shahrbanoo Sadat)

Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “The Together Project” (Solveig Anspach)

Europa Cinemas Label: “Mercernary” (Sacha Wolff)

CRITICS’ WEEK

Grand Prize: “Mimosas” (Oliver Saxe)

Visionary Prize: “Album” (Mehmet Can Mertoğlu)

Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “Diamond Island” (Day Chou)

FIPRESCI

Competition: “Toni Erdmann” (Maren Ade, Germany-Austria)

Un Certain Regard: “Dogs” (Bogdan Mirică, Romania-France)

Critics’ Week: “Raw” (Julia Ducournau, France-Belgium)

What Lisa Watched Last Night #151: Marriage of Lies (dir by Danny J. Boyle)

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, after I got home from my aborted attempt to celebrate Memorial Day a week early (read the previous post for details), I watched the latest Lifetime premiere, Marriage of Lies!

Why Was I Watching It?

Well, the obvious answer is that not only was it on Lifetime but it also had one of the most stereotypically Lifetime titles ever.

Marriage of Lies!

It just screams Lifetime melodrama, doesn’t it?

There I was, still feeling embarrassed over getting the date of Memorial Day wrong, and what do I see listed in guide? Marriage of Lies! As soon as I saw that title, I knew everything was going to be okay.

What Was It About?

Call it Gone Guy.

One morning, Rachel Wilson (April Browlby) wakes up to discover that her husband, popular teacher Tye Wilson (Brody Hutzler), is gone. Because their marriage is already troubled because of a past infidelity on Tye’s part, Rachel thinks that Tye has just temporarily gone off on his own. She doesn’t report him missing for two days and, after she does, she suddenly finds that she’s the number one suspect.

Everyone thinks that Rachel murdered her missing husband, including a world-weary detective named Gus (played by Corin Nemec). At first, it seems like Rachel’s only ally is her best friend (Virginia Williams) but soon, Rachel starts to doubt even her.

With reporters camping out in her front yard and the entire world convinced of her guilt, Rachel starts to wonder if Tye’s actually been abducted and/or murdered or if maybe there’s something even stranger going on…

What Worked?

Marriage of Lies was fairly well-done. The actors all did a good job. Among those of us who were live-tweeting the film on twitter, Detective Roper (played by Zachary Garred) quickly emerged as our favorite character. Roper was Gus’s partner. Whereas Gus was cynical and beaten-down by life, Roper seemed to actually be having fun with his job. Of course, he was also pretty quick to assume that Rachel was guilty but that was just Roper being Roper!

The ending, with its suggestion that the truth means nothing and that sensation-seeking observers have no real interest in reality, was properly cynical and nicely done.

What Did Not Work?

The movie played a bit too slowly and the pacing definitely felt a bit off. (Of course, it’s difficult to judge these things when the action has to stop every 17 minutes or so for a commercial break.)

After all of the build up, I was hoping that the eventual solution to Tye’s disappearance would turn out to be totally fucked up and weird but instead, it pretty much played out the way that I predicted it would after the first five minutes of the film.

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

I have to admit that I related to the character of Kinna (Madison Iseman), who was one of Mr. Wilson’s students and who had a huge crush on him. I felt that way about some of my teachers when I was in high school. Also, much like Kinna, I would probably be totally useless as a member of a search party.

Lessons Learned

It’s easier to vanish than you might think.

6 Trailers For a Mistaken Weekend

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here’s a little story.

So yesterday, I told my sister that I was going to go ahead and hop in my car and make the 45-minute drive to our uncle’s place. She said, “Uhmmm….okay, Lisa Marie,” and, at the time, I was confused as to why she sounded confused. After all, we go out to our uncle’s place every Memorial Day weekend. He has a big house. He has a big back yard and a pool that’s great for laying out and working on your tan. Celebrating Memorial Day weekend at our uncle’s is a Bowman-Marchi Family tradition!

And so, I drove out there. And when I arrived at the house, I thought it was weird that none of my cousins had arrived yet. Both my aunt and my uncle seemed surprised to see me but I figured they were just wondering where my cousins were as well. I mentioned to them that I was early and then, instead of sticking around to have a conversation, I ducked into the guest room and I changed into my favorite black bikini and then I went outside and I lay out by the pool.

And I have to admit that I was a little bit frustrated. Unlike all of my sisters and most of my cousins, I am pretty much incapable of getting a decent tan and it didn’t help that the sky was full of clouds. But I was even more frustrated by the fact that nobody else had shown up yet. Didn’t they know it was Memorial Day weekend?

Except, of course, it wasn’t Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day weekend is next week and somehow, I managed to get my dates confused. Both my uncle and my aunt were very understanding about my mistake and they were kind enough to both feed me and invite me to stay the weekend. I thanked them for their kindness, told them that I couldn’t wait to come back next weekend, and then — with my face almost as red as my hair — I went home.

Shut up, Jimmy Brooks! I’m almost done and my name’s not Ellie! Anyway, my point is that I was planning on making the latest edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers a Memorial Day edition. And, next weekend, it will be. However, for this weekend, enjoy these 6 randomly and hastily selected replacement trailers, none of which have much to do with each other…

Tender Flesh (1974)