ReelzChannel Video: The Deppage Factor: Other Mad Hatter Perfect Roles
Every now and then there’s a casting choice that seems predestined, a true chicken/egg situation. A role it’s impossible to believe wasn’t written with a particular actor in mind. Or a case where it seems cosmic forces must have been at play, birthing the perfect star for a role just waiting to [...]
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Michael Hoffman on THE LAST STATION
The core of THE LAST STATION’S story is the conflict between Leo Tolstoy and his wife, the Countess Sofya, over the rights to his works. But frack that, what really matters is that you’ve got Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as the Countess, and the opportunity to watch them seduce, cajole, clash, and [...]
Scott Cooper on CRAZY HEART
And so here we are at the last MMP episode of 2009, unless, of course, a there’s an emergency, late-breaking filmmaker interview (Mr. Scorsese, my calendar’s open). Barring that, we’re going out with a good ‘un: Scott Cooper’s finely crafted, astutely observed CRAZY HEART.
This is Cooper’s directorial debut — not even a short film to [...]
John Woo on RED CLIFF
The short form would be that John Woo rediscovered himself in returning to China, but that really doesn’t capture what’s going on. Woo made his name with such beautiful, dynamic, and surprisingly thoughtful urban crime films as HARD BOILED and THE KILLER — pop culture with soul — then made his way to America for [...]
PIRATE RADIO Part 2: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis had a death in the family. I’d flown in to London to do the interviews for my PIRATE RADIO coverage, and the director was at the top of my list. Some things, though, take precedence over spending fifteen minutes with a dumpy New York journalist, and for Curtis, this had to be one [...]
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PIRATE RADIO Part 1: Nick Frost, Talulah Riley, Tom Sturridge
So here’s what I did on my class trip to London: shoot a video featuring people on the street discussing whether they preferred PIRATE RADIO or THE BOAT THAT ROCKED as the title of the latest Richard Curtis film; interview some of the stars of the film itself; and eat British airport pizza. Two of [...]
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Mira Nair on AMELIA
You’re going to have to trust me on this one: I am a romantic. ONCE is one of my favorite films; I teared up at both UP and MARY AND MAX (animated characters struggling for their small bit of happiness just hit some special spot in me). But when you’re telling the tale of Amelia [...]
REPOST: Anne Fontaine on COCO BEFORE CHANEL
So last week we had BRIGHT STAR, in which 19th century Fanny Brawne came into her own through her gifts as a seamstress. And now we have Anne Fontaine’s COCO BEFORE CHANEL, in which Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel… well… “comes into her own” is putting it mildly. She frackin’ defined an industry, after all.
Thankfully, this is [...]
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REPOST: Ben Whishaw and Paul Schneider on Jane Campion’s BRIGHT STAR
Guess I’m going to have to reevaluate my opinion of THE PIANO. I was one of those backlash guys, one of the ones who read all the effulgent praise about the film, the stuff elevating it to hitherto unknown heights as a stunning, sensuous cinematic event, and anticipated an experience that would forever change my [...]
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Monika Treut on GHOSTED
It’s turning out to be a pretty good year for unexpected international co-productions — check out the MMP ep on the superb Israeli/Australian stop-motion animated film $9.99 if you don’t believe me. Now Germany and Taiwan have joined forces, not for the exquisitely designed yet affordable home entertainment system you might expect, but for German [...]
