Congratulations to all of this year’s Academy Award nominees, many of which had (or will have) their exclusive exposure in Central Florida at Enzian. Currently the theater is showing Tom Ford’s A SINGLE MAN, which earned the wonderful Colin Firth his first Best Actor in a Leading Role nod. It could’ve easily also been nominated for Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actress (for Julianne Moore), but the Academy seems to have fallen asleep on this one. Next up on the Enzian schedule is Michael Haneke’s THE WHITE RIBBON from Germany, nominated for two awards including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography (as gorgeous and haunting b&w as you’ll ever see) . The film recently won the Golden Globes’ Best Foreign Film Award as well as the Palme d’Or at Cannes last Spring.
If you’ve been to Enzian in the last few months, you could have also seen PARIS 36 (Best Original Song - “Loin de Paname”), COCO BEFORE CHANEL (Best Costume Design), and the Coen Brothers’ A SERIOUS MAN (Best Picture of the Year and Best Original Screenplay). If you attended last year’s Florida Film Festival, you could have seen IL DIVO from Italy (Best Makeup) and our Audience Award Winner for Best International Short, Patrik Eklund’s hilarious INSTEAD OF ABRACADABRA from Sweden (Best Live Action Short Film). If you plan on going to this year’s Florida Film Festival April 9 - 18, you may just have a shot at seeing not only Patrik Eklund’s brand new Cannes-winning short, but MUSIC BY PRUDENCE (Best Documentary Short Subject) and THE NEW TENANTS (Best Live Action Short Film) (hint, hint…) And if you came to this year’s 15th annual South Asian Film Festival in early October, you could have seen Gregg Helvey’s powerful, Student Academy Award-winning KAVI (now also nominated for Best Live Action Short Film).
So come check us out and take a chance on something new and different. You never know what film will be hitting the red carpet at Oscar time months down the road, and you can say you saw it first right here at Enzian.
Not “misses’ in terms of quality mind you, but the top 10 films I most regret not seeing during my time in snowy Park City. In alphabetical order rather than degree of remorse, here’s my list:
1) Animal Kingdom
2) Blue Valentine
3) Catfish
4) Four Lions
5) GASLAND
6) The Kids are All Right
7) Nowhere Boy
8) Please Give
9) Space Tourists
10) The Tillman Story
All is not lost however, as half of these were checked out by a combination of Enzian and the Florida Film Festival’s GM (Chris Blanc) and President (Henry Maldonado). And as it stands now with the recent acquisitions of BLUE VALENTINE (the Weinstein Company) and THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Focus Features), four of the ten have domestic distribution including PLEASE GIVE (Sony Pictures Classics) and NOWHERE BOY (the Weinstein Company again!) This bodes well for the potential to bring them to Orlando in the coming months, either for the FFF or a theatrical run at Enzian (or hopefully both). Stay tuned…
…it doesn’t always mean the results are going to be as exceptional as the performances we’ve come to expect from them. This thought came to mind today as I just so happened to catch the directorial debuts of Philip Seymour Hoffman (JACK GOES BOATING) and Mark Ruffalo (SYMPATHY FOR DELICIOUS) back to back. The results were as different as night and day, which was probably more a reflection of their source material (neither wrote their screenplays) than perhaps their skill behind the camera. They also both acted in their films and did a fine job, Seymour Hoffman in a lead role and Ruffalo in a supporting one. But more on them later…
The snowfall finally stopped and has given way to frigid temperatures ranging from high 20s during the day to around 10 degrees at night (or was that single digits? It sure felt like it!), but it is supposed to get a bit warmer for the week (mid-30s down to high teens, which is fine by me). Walking around without breaking your ass is still a challenge though.
My Vikings are done, having lost in OT to the Saints for the right to play the Colts in the Super Bowl. They had a big advantage in time of possession and yards gained, but 5 turnovers (4 in the Saints end of the field!) will kill you, not to mention an absolutely idiotic and inexcusable delay-of-game penalty with 20 seconds left in regulation that put them out of winning field goal range. Favre threw an interception on the very next play, the game went to overtime, the Saints won the coin flip, and that’s all she wrote. Minnesota just didn’t deserve to win with the way they played, and my guess is that Brett is one and done with the Vikes. What a shame…
More film short takes:
BOY (3 stars) – The latest from EAGLE VS. SHARK and sometime “Flight of the Concords” director Taika Waititi is an often charming and whimsical coming-of-age story set in mid-80s New Zealand. 11-year-old “Boy” is obsessed with Michael Jackson and lives with his Gran, little brother Rocky, and other younger kids since Mom passed away and small-time criminal Dad is largely absent. When his father suddenly shows up from jail to look for some buried loot, all of them have lots of growing up to do. Filled with childlike animation and Jacko inspired dance sequences, this is a heartfelt, often bittersweet tale.
CYRUS (3 ½ stars) – THE PUFFY CHAIR creators Mark and Jay Duplass are back with this hilarious and very uncomfortable dramatic comedy starring John C. Reilly as a depressed, 7-year divorced editor who meets an attractive woman (Marissa Tomei) at a party who seems interested in him. They hit it off, but he gets a lot more than he bargained for when he discovers she’s got an odd live-at-home son in his early 20s (Jonah Hill) who’s none too pleased about sharing “Molly” with another man. Catherine Keener (as the ex-wife/best friend) and Matt Walsh (as her new fiancé) co-star, and the film has some wonderful ad-libbed dialogue and great lines.
SPLICE (3 stars) – Don’t screw with Mother Nature! A very entertaining though not thoroughly logical sci-fi horror film about the perils of genetic engineering. Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody star as brilliant scientists who bring something new into the world, much to their ultimate dismay. Awesome special effects and cool creatures add to the creepy fun from Vincenzo Natali, the Canadian director of the cult hit, CUBE.
JACK GOES BOATING (3 ½ stars) – The directorial debut of Philip Seymour Hoffman in which he stars as a somewhat meek, unconfident, and shlubby limo driver in NYC who begins a relationship with a troubled woman (Amy Ryan) who works in his best friend’s wife’s office. Meanwhile, his friend Clyde and his wife Lucy are going through some relationship trials of their own. Hoffman gets terrific performances out of his cast, and this comedic drama about love and friendship in the big city is moving, funny, and incredibly authentic.
SYMPATHY FOR DELICIOUS (1 ½ stars) – Written by and starring Christopher Thornton as the Dave Grohl-looking homeless paraplegic turntablist who discovers he’s got the power to heal and becomes a rock star, this is one of the most jaw-dropping and absurd films I’ve seen in a while. It’s also the directorial debut of Mark Ruffalo, who co-stars as a helpful priest who sees a cash cow in DJ “Delicious” Dean. Juliette Lewis (Ariel!) and Orlando Bloom (as “Stain!”) are in the band, and a ludicrously tough Laura Linney is their manager. Unfortunately this fine ensemble can’t raise this ludicrous Christ parable (which actually ends with the Bee Gees’ “I Started a Joke”!) above the level of bizarrely amusing. I would’ve loved to have been there for the Q&A after the first public screening—wow!
After a fairly turbulent flight and our first full day of filmgoing at Sundance, one thing is for certain—this may well be the snowiest festival yet. Thursday’s arrival was greeted by a few sets of flurries and mild temps in the low 30s, but it started really coming down that night and just hasn’t stopped since. Mild to blizzard in strength, perhaps as much as a foot and a half has fallen in 24 hours or so—absolutely beautiful but it makes for treacherous foot traffic. None of us can ever remember the sidewalks ever being this bad (tiny steps, tiny steps…)
Apparently my doppelgangers have been busy. Two different people told me yesterday that they had seen me recently in NY and LA! One thought I was on his flight out from NYC to Salt Lake City on Thursday, the other thought they saw me introducing a film at a theater in Los Angeles last week. Amazing what you can get accomplished while pulling marathon FFF final selections sessions in Orlando.
Day 1 for movies was a mixed bag but mostly positive, aided by the fact that all industry screeenings are now taking place at the Holiday Village (with its excellent sound and stadium seating) and no longer split time with the Yarrow (and its bad sightlines, portable chairs, and overheating). I don’t think you’ll hear any of us complaining about this development. Though it is too bad that they moved they Industry Lounge from the Yarrow over to HQ at the Marriott, leaving one less gathering place in walking distance of the press screeenings for all of us to hang inbetween films.
Film Short Takes (star ratings based on the current Tribune 4-star scale used in the Orlando Sentinel):
GET LOW (4-stars) - Robert Duvall in an Oscar-worthy performance gets his best role in years as a legendary and reclusive old hermit with a secret who decides he wants to have his funeral party while he’s still alive. Bill Murray and Lucas Black run the struggling funeral parlor and Sissy Spacek is a past love in this sublimely moving and often funny period piece aided by a beautiful backwoods score featuring Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan and Alison Kraus.
THE RED CHAPEL (3 1/2 - stars) - An activist filmmaker from Denmark sets out to reveal the real North Korea when he takes two young Danish/Korean comedians, one a self-described spastic, on a supposed cultural exchange tour to the bizarre and frightening world of Kim Jong Il. Government officials are soon brought in to tweak their performance piece and essentially purge everything Danish about their skits, and this sometime hilarious doc is subversive performance art that may even outdo The Yes Men.
HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE (2 1/2 - stars) - Josh Radnor of TV’s “How I Met Your Mother” fame wrote, stars in, and directed this decent feature debut about a bunch of young New Yorkers struggling with adulthood and relationships as they push 30. An ensemble piece with some good lines and a few funny moments, Radnor’s central role as a struggling writer who finds himself taking care of a young African-American orphan boy while trying to romance a hot cocktail waitress/cabaret singer named Mississippi (really!) is the best of the three story threads. Entertaining but not exactly engaging, I just didn’t care enough about the other supporting characters (including a hairless Malin Akerman)
A PROPHET (4-stars) - Wow! This one is certainly deserving of all of the international acclaim thus far, including a major award at Cannes, a Golden Globe nomination, and the Oscar shortlist for Best Foreign Film. An extraordinary, exciting, and almost poetic crime drama that focuses on the complex prison journey of a young French Arab, I now understand the GODFATHER comparisons I’ve been hearing since Toronto in September. A must-see.
Congratulations to writer/director Tony Herbert whose 2007 romantic comedy, SPEED DATING, finally made its U.S. home video debut yesterday, January 19. Hugh O’Conor from THE YOUNG POISONER’S HANDBOOK starred in this witty and thoroughly entertaining cocktail of matchmaking, mystery, and murder that had its North American Premiere and two sold-out screenings at the 2007 Florida Film Festival. If memory serves, the film also had a terrific musical score including The Starlight Mints and Sufjan Stevens. With charm, romance, and humor to spare, this veteran of over 40 festivals and winner of 5 awards is a perfect option for Valentine’s Day. For more info check out http://www.speeddatingthemovie.com/
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