“Movie review: 'Edmond' - Chicago Tribune” plus 4 more |
- Movie review: 'Edmond' - Chicago Tribune
- Panel: Bring in movie crews - Baton Rouge Advocate
- Hollywood Hopes Rest On 3D 'Movie Magic' - Ananova
- PUREFOY NEEDED STITCHES FOR SWORDFIGHTING WOUND ON MOVIE SET - Contactmusic.com
- WRITERS SUE OVER ANISTON'S NEW MOVIE - Contactmusic.com
| Movie review: 'Edmond' - Chicago Tribune Posted: 15 Sep 2009 10:39 PM PDT 3½ stars (out of four) Horror movies don't always have to be about homicidal corpses or monsters. "Edmond," a new movie from horror specialist Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator"), based on a play by David Mamet, takes place in modern L.A. It's about a middle-aged white executive--the title character, played by William H. Macy--who wanders one night into a hell of crime and punishment in search of his manhood, love and some cheap oral sex. He finds them all, though not in the ways he expected. Mamet is a writer who turns off some audiences, and almost everything that might bother them is in "Edmond": foul language, raging machismo, violence and seemingly bigoted tirades. But almost everything audiences like about him is there too: candor, suspense, ideas, crackling slang, vivid characters. When we first see Macy's Edmond Burke, fate already has him in a vise. After he leaves his humdrum office, he talks to a tarot card reader who sees catastrophe ahead: "You are not where you belong." Soon, he begins trying to escape his life, telling his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) he's leaving and then heading for a bar where a gabby, suave basketball fan (Joe Mantegna) makes racist cracks and sends Edmond off to a local bar/sex club. There something screwy emerges about Edmond's sense of money and potential danger. When a pretty, amiable B-girl (Denise Richards) tells him her fee and asks him to buy an exorbitantly priced drink, he becomes incensed. Soon he's gotten himself tossed out, the start of a long round of explosive confrontations with hookers, hotel clerks, three-card monte grifters, pawnshop guys and pimps, in which Edmond keeps heatedly complaining about the cost ("It's too much!"), trying to apply bourgeois standards to a corrupt underworld and sinking deeper into nightmare. "Edmond's" last scene is one of the most ferociously appropriate paybacks Mamet has ever devised. Gordon, who has directed Mamet before (the world stage premiere here of "Sexual Perversity in Chicago"), has a deeper, more darkly comic and more humane temperament than he usually shows in his low-budget horror movies. It's not surprising that he has finally made a movie such as this or his other "offbeat" film, "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit." These are the kind of movies he should be making. "Edmond" is an actor's showcase too. In a top-notch star-heavy cast, Macy is perfect as the bent Everyman, and Mantegna as his first tempter. Julia Stiles is scarily vulnerable as Edmond's last pickup, Glenna. Bokeem Woodbine radiates ambivalent menace as a prisoner, and Lionel Mark Smith is wonderfully sleazy as a pimp. "Edmond" is the most effective Mamet play adaptation I've seen since James Foley's blistering 1992 "Glengarry Glen Ross." In the films Mamet directs, including "Oleanna" (with Macy), the overly stylized line readings tend to dry the movies out; other directors, using his material, tend to be too reverent. Here, Gordon plays the stylized dialogue against a horror-suspense context, a nightmare with hints of both Georg Buechner's "Woyzeck" and Brian De Palma's "Body Double." As always, Mamet's immaculate stagecraft reshapes real life, pushing it to extremes, twisting it up and subverting it. The results are annihilating. ---- 'Edmond' Opens Friday for a two-week run at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St. Macy will appear at the 8 p.m Friday and 8:15 p.m. Saturday screenings. MPAA rating: R (for violence, strong language and sexual content including nudity and dialogue).  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Panel: Bring in movie crews - Baton Rouge Advocate Posted: 15 Sep 2009 10:10 PM PDT It isn't as though the same light bulb hasn't gone off before when the Baton Rouge Film Commission brainstormed ways to make the Capital Region a premier place for making movies. But Tuesday, at the commission's final 2009 quarterly meeting, the idea burned brighter: Yes, cash and tax credit incentives may woo filmmakers to Baton Rouge, but the bigger point is this: Well-trained movie crews will keep producers here, commission members agreed. One Baton Rouge studio now is partnering with a real estate firm to wave house-buying money at union movie crew members who live elsewhere. Partnering with C.J. Brown Realtors, the Celtic Media Centre will offer $2,000 in closing costs for skilled union movie crew personnel to buy a house within a 30-mile radius. Toss in a federal first-time homebuyer tax credit for those who qualify and Celtic's willingness to pay initial union dues and the package value could top $10,000 in some cases. "I think you're going to see a lot of mass relocation out of California," said Patrick Mulhearn, director of operations for Raleigh Studios at Celtic Media Centre in Baton Rouge. "By comparison, Louisiana is looking a lot more competitive. What we think can happen is we can double our crew base in one year." That's vital for Baton Rouge, because fewer than 100 union movie crew veterans — the kind coveted by major studios — are based in and around the city, Mulhearn said. A major production can require 100 skilled workers, from electricians to set-building carpenters to costume and camera specialists. Louisiana has the equivalent of about 10 union crews. As long as skilled workers remain in tight supply, other incentives may be necessary. Jefferson Parish and Caddo Parish officials have dangled cash incentives worth 3 percent to 4 percent of a movie budget, capped at $100,000 to $150,000 depending on the jurisdiction. That's on top of the 30 percent state film tax credit and another 5 percent credit on Louisiana-based labor. The Metro Council agreed in August to give $175,000 in cash to entice the Sony/Columbia Pictures release, "Battle: Los Angeles," to Baton Rouge — largely because of in-state competition. One local film leader at Tuesday's meeting said he longs for the day cash incentives won't be needed. "The incentive worked in this case," said Bob Bayham of Celtic Media Centre, where "Battle: Los Angeles" is filming through the rest of the year. And Baton Rouge needed to offer the incentive to win the project, he said. "We appreciate the support from everyone in the city (but) I would like to see all of the local incentives go away," Bayham said. How willing the city-parish will be to offer cash incentives in the future will depend on city finances and the film impact, such things as how much money will be spent directly in Baton Rouge, said John Carpenter, an assistant chief administrative officer to Mayor-President Kip Holden. "We're looking project by project and we're looking at return on investment," Carpenter said. Film impact also will depend on the viability of the production. With "Battle: Los Angeles," for instance, Columbia Pictures had secured worldwide distribution rights, considered a credibility builder in the industry. Film commissioners have estimated that the total budget of "Battle: Los Angeles" could reach $60 million, with at least $25 million spent in Baton Rouge. That deal is considered the baseline for future films to gain a cash incentive from the city, and the Baton Rouge Film Commission is courting multiple projects in that category, said Amy Mitchell-Smith, the commission's director. Winning "Battle: Los Angeles" is helping the effort, she said.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Hollywood Hopes Rest On 3D 'Movie Magic' - Ananova Posted: 15 Sep 2009 11:07 PM PDT Hollywood's most famous computer animation firm hopes hi-tech 3D films will encourage people to watch movies at the cinema rather than pirate copies or illegal downloads. Pixar's tactic is that because you can only see 3D movies on the big screen, it will be enough to entice us to part with the cash for a ticket at the flicks. The firm, which releases its new feature-length movie 'Up' next month, is developing novel ideas they hope will work. 'Up' is a heart-warming tale of an old man who can't bear to leave his house so ties balloons to it and flies away. Earlier this year, it opened the Cannes Film Festival - the first animated movie to ever do that. Renowned for its constant innovation, now Pixar is hoping that animation is finally being accepted by the adults as much as the kids. "These are films we make with computers - they just happen to be animated," director Pete Docter said. "But it did feel that we were being accepted at the table at Cannes by world cinema," the director added. 'Up' will be released in standard 2D - but some cinemagoers will get the chance to watch it in Disney Digital 3D at selected cinemas. The film is the first of what could turn out to be a new franchise as a potential sequel in the future hasn't been ruled out. Pixar has traditionally frowned upon revisiting its past hits - saying a follow-up is unacceptable unless it's absolutely perfect. But that policy seems to be relaxing slightly now. We had Toy Story 2 back in 1999 and now they're working on Toy Story 3 for next year, while Cars 2 is also on the movie motorway. "Every sequel has to top what we've done before" director Docter said. "You have to have a reason - especially if you hold up to examples like The Empire Strikes Back and Godfather 2. "The sequel has to be that good to stand up against the first film or we simply won't do it," Docter said. :: Up is due to be released in the UK on October 9.
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| PUREFOY NEEDED STITCHES FOR SWORDFIGHTING WOUND ON MOVIE SET - Contactmusic.com Posted: 15 Sep 2009 05:38 PM PDT PUREFOY NEEDED STITCHES FOR SWORDFIGHTING WOUND ON MOVIE SET British movie hunk JAMES PUREFOY almost lost his head on the set of new action movie SOLOMON KANE when director MICHAEL BASSETT decided to use real blades for battle scenes. 16 September 2009 01:42
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| WRITERS SUE OVER ANISTON'S NEW MOVIE - Contactmusic.com Posted: 15 Sep 2009 05:38 PM PDT WRITERS SUE OVER ANISTON'S NEW MOVIE JENNIFER ANISTON's new movie is at the centre of a legal battle - two screenwriters insist the plot was stolen from them. 16 September 2009 01:42
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