The Playlist

Sundance '11 Review: 'My Idiot Brother' Is Apatovian, Pleasureable & A Real Surprise

By The Playlist
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January 23, 2011 11:33 AM
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From our reviews correspondent over at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, James Rocchi.“My Idiot Brother,” directed by Jesse Peretz, is in many ways a hard film to rationalize here at the Sundance film festival. It is a glossy comedy, albeit with a thin layer of surface grime provided by harsh language, brief nudity and other mature circumstances to take a bit of the gleam off. It is about as “independent” as a premature infant on a respirator. It does not introduce new faces and talents, nor does it show us talents we know doing something different. Instead, “My Idiot Brother” assembles a comedy dream team for a story of family and forgiveness, shows us people trying to be good, trying to be more than themselves, and has amazing comedy bits ranging from huge sight gags and ba-doomp-boomp! punchlines, to razor-sharp sentences that boomerang back after they’ve whizzed by and silent expressions that convey volumes. It is a clear heir to the Apatovian comedy trend of emotional journeys along roads pocked with potty-talk potholes, and yet it also has as much heart as, if not more than, the best of Apatow’s work. It may be slender, but it is also a sheer delight.

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Jane Goldman Not Working On 'Kick-Ass 2' Script; Says Matthew Vaughn's Next Film Is Something Else

By The Playlist
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January 23, 2011 11:09 AM
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3 Comments

Sorry Mark MillarThis weekend a Daily Mail report casually mentioned that screenwriter Jane Goldman ("Kick Ass," "Stardust," "X-Men: First Class") was busy at work penning the "Kick Ass 2" screenplay (from her bed, no less) and the story picked up traction in fanboy circles. Sorry, apostles, but Goldman herself quickly stated on Twitter that this report was false.

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Coen Brothers Say Their Adaptation Of 'To The White Sea' Is Probably Not Coming Back

By The Playlist
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January 23, 2011 10:10 AM
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6 Comments

The Coen brothers are riding high these days. Their latest, “True Grit,” is already the highest-grossing film of their careers, it continues to rake it in at the box-office and come Tuesday, they'll probably (hopefully) have a few more Oscar nominations to add to their tally (ten so far). On their never-ending press tour for the film, the Coens recently stopped by the Creative Screenwriting podcast to discuss their latest and some of their other projects including their now famous adaptation of “Deliverance” author James Dickeys' novel “To The White Sea.” A WWII adventure pic starring Brad Pitt as an American pilot stranded in China and unable to communicate, the project is infamous among longtime Coen fans for the script's minimal dialogue but was shelved by the studios because of its $80 million budget. We featured the project as one of Ten Dead Projects We’d Like To See Resurrected but, as you've probably already guessed, its future is not looking any brighter.

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Sorry Cowpokes, Ed Harris Tells Us That Viggo Mortensen Has Killed An 'Appaloosa' Sequel

By Drew Taylor
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January 23, 2011 8:23 AM
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6 Comments

Academy-Award Nominated Actor Talks Working With Peter Weir On 'The Way Back'EXCLUSIVE: When talking to Ed Harris this week about his turn as the mysterious Mr. Smith in Peter Weir's grueling (but life-affirming) "The Way Back," we couldn't help but ask him about the status of an "Appaloosa" sequel. We're big fans of the 2008 western, which Harris directed and co-starred in, alongside his "History of Violence" co-star Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger (in one of her best post-"Cold Mountain" performances), Lance Henriksen, and Jeremy Irons (as a scenery-chomping villain). The movie had a laid back, sardonic vibe, thanks largely to the fact that it was based on a novel of the same name by smart-ass crime novelist Robert B. Parker. There were two more books based on the characters that Harris and Mortensen portrayed, so we figured a return would be likely, given that Harris has mentioned a sequel many times in the last few years.

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Weekend Box Office: Audiences Get Their Strings Attached To 'No Strings Attached'

By Gabe Toro
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January 23, 2011 6:41 AM
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3 Comments

Not much news to report during this quiet January weekend. One wide release opened to numbers that a studio would expect given two publicity-heavy stars in January ($20.3 million). “No Strings Attached” matched industry expectations, bringing good news to all involved, though if you're the only wide release in a single weekend, you're really banking on at least $20 mil. Budget numbers on this film go from $25 to $35 million, but there were extensive reshoots and it couldn’t have been too cheap to get these two multi-tasking stars in the fold.

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Director Matthew Vaughn Compares 'X-Men: First Class' To 'Twilight' & James Bond Films

By Edward Davis
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January 23, 2011 4:57 AM
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2 Comments

Director Reveals Plot Details: CIA Joins Forces With X-Men, Magneto Like Sean Connery Bond, Professor X A WomanizerIf you're anything like us you generally only like (and sometimes can only tolerate) realistic super-hero films. Granted, men and (sometimes) women running around in tights battling crime or fighting super villains is never "realistic," but the films that can manage to suspend our disbelief the most -- "The Dark Knight," "X2" -- tend to be our favorites.

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Sundance '11: Paramount Gets 'Like Crazy' With Anton Yelchin & Felicity Jones, 'Margin Call' Sold

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 23, 2011 4:07 AM
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1 Comment

'Project Nim,' 'Tabloid,' 'The Raven,' 'There Be Dragons' & 'Tanner Hall' All Picked Up In Busy Week Of AcquisitionsThe attitude coming out of Sundance this year is overwhelmingly positive, with many critics already swooning over quirky films like Miranda July’s “The Future” and Elizabeth Olsen’s performance in Sean Durkin’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” But though there’s been a lot of praise during the first three days of the indie festival, the first film to truly wow viewers (and buyers, apparently) is Drake Doremus’ “Like Crazy,” a film about long-distance lovers trying to make it through. It’s apparently so wonderful that just a day after its premiere, Paramount Pictures has snatched it up for U.S. distribution, with production company Indian Paintbrush co-producing, according to those close to the deal. The film has been one we've been keeping a close eye on for a while, and was already listed as one of our most anticipated of the year and the positive buzz now coming out of Park City has only stoked our curiosity further.

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'The King's Speech' Beats Out 'The Social Network' For Best Picture At The Producers Guild Awards

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 23, 2011 2:24 AM
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Hold on Oscar prognosticators, "The Social Network" isn't a lock for Oscar just yet.

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Sundance '11 Review: 'Uncle Kent' Sees Joe Swanberg Entering New Territory But Doesn't Go Far Enough

By Christopher Bell
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January 23, 2011 2:22 AM
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It's hard to believe that this is the first year a Joe Swanberg joint found its way to Park City. Festival circuits tend to consume these micro-indies like they'll expire the next morning, so why hasn't one of the godfathers of the movement received an invitation until now? The same goes for fellow "leader" Andrew Bujalski and another very talented colleague Aaron Katz. If there's room for terrible lot like the pre-"Carey Mulligan" Carey Mulligan sap-drama "The Greatest" and barely mediocre "Holy Rollers," surely they could squeeze in one of these pint-sized features. They lack stars, but are a good representation of what's going on in underground American film.

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