Author Archives: Henry J. Fromage
The Daily Shotgun: May 18th
By: Henry J. Fromage -
Who knew that the kid who drew cocks, so many cocks! would end up an Oscar nominee? Jonah Hill has to be one of the least likely nominees in some time, but his work in Moneyball appears to have done more than just land him that nomination. It opened up his career to a variety of dramatic roles on top of the comic offers he’s used to getting. The latest role comes from Martin Scorcese in a team-up with Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. He’ll play the childhood buddy of DiCaprio, who is called out of the furniture business to work in stocks, and partake in all of the sex, drugs, and spiraling out of control that comes with that, at least according to Hollywood.
Or maybe I’m wrong, and it’ll be two hours of DiCaprio and Hill discussing how derivatives work
You know who else would be a pretty unlikely Oscar nominee? Robert Pattinson. Don’t tell him that, though, as he’s doing his damndest to distance himself from everything Twilight. We’ll get our first indication as to how that’ll work out for him when reviews for David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis filter in from Cannes later this month. In the meantime, he’s lining up even more intriguing-sounding work. Mission: Blacklist will tell the true-life story of a military interrogator tracking down Saddam Hussein. An encouraging sign is that the flick will be written by Band of Brothers writer/producer Erik Jendresen, but he’ll have his job cut out for him tailoring the grizzled career military man role to Pattinson.
I guess PTSD could be one explanation for that blank look…
Pattinson’s not done with that one, as he also recently signed on to The Rover, from on the rise Australian auteur David Michod (Animal Kingdom). The movie centers on a man who crossed the Outback to recover his stolen car and the mysterious, important object he left inside. Guy Pearce will actually fill that role, while Pattinson will play the guy who steals the car in the first place. It’d be easy to dismiss this one as well, as it sounds like another hardened role and unlikely casting for a poorly reviewed teen heartthrob.
And those guys never figure it out
White Lightnin’ (2009)
White Lightnin' (2009) DVD / Blu-ray
By: Henry J. Fromage (Three Beers) -
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There are a lot of directions a feature film adaptation of the PBS documentary Dancing Outlaw and the life of Jesco White could have gone. If you’re an idiot, there’s some easy comedy to be mined from dancing hillbillies and spousal abuse. Or you could go the Winter’s Bone route and shoot for some Oscars.
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009)
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009) DVD / Blu-ray
By: Henry J. Fromage (Four Beers) -
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Ten years after PBS’s short profile of Jesco White, the Dancing Outlaw, the surprising reach of the half hour television special manifested itself in the form of another documentary film crew descending on his corner ofWest Virginia. The focus this time was on the rest of the White clan, who we caught glimpses of in the original. If anything, they are even more substance-addled, petty criminal, and irresistibly magnetic as Jesco, and their appeal as subjects is unsurprising. The identity of the production company, however…
Dancing Outlaw (1991) & Dancing Outlaw II (1999)
Dancing Outlaw (1991) DVD / Blu-ray
By: Henry J. Fromage (Four Beers) -
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In 1991, PBS set off a minor sensation with their half-hour documentary short Dancing Outlaw. It’s popularity would spawn a sequel, if that’s what you want to call it, as well as a feature film and a Johnny Knoxville-produced follow-up documentary. It also would make its subject, Jesco White, the self-proclaimed most famous man in West Virginia, which maybe isn’t as hard as it sounds.
The Daily Shotgun: New DVD Releases May 15th
By: Henry J. Fromage -
Here we go again! Studios finally broke open their new release coffers this week, and we have a crush of films to talk about. In case you were wondering, those films do not include Sid the Science Kid, Rape of the Vampire, eCupid: Love on the Download, or Hitler and the Bitch of Buchenwald. My sincerest apologies.
Chronicle -
Chronicle (2012) DVD / Blu-ray
Melding found footage and anything these days seems pretty uninspired, but this one does a pretty good job of using the increasingly hackneyed technique to tell a superhero origin story. As The Cinepiliac mentions in her review, it’s not entirely a success, but it’s well worth a watch.
The Grey -
The Grey (2012) DVD / Blu-ray
Liam Neeson vs. Wolves (with a hearty helping of existential crisis). If you need more than that, you might want to check your pulse. Oberst von Berauscht brings the details:
The Devil Inside -
The Devil Inside (2012) DVD / Blu-ray
Found footage again, in a more familiar package: possession horror. Some critics savaged this one, but The Cinephiliac counsels if you keep your expectations low and beer supply handy you just might enjoy it.
One for the Money -
One for the Money (2012) DVD / Blu-ray
Poor, poor Katherine Heigl. I hope I never cross paths with the gypsy crone that cursed her to an eternity making low-brow romcom drivel. Oberst Von Berauscht backs up each and every of the easy six beers this one draws:
Albert Nobbs -
Albert Nobbs (2011) DVD / Blu-ray
I really wanted for Glenn Close’s long in development labor of love to be much better than it was, but this story of a woman masquerading as a man in 19th century Ireland ends up much to saccharine and conventional to give a pass.
Rampart -
Rampart (2011) DVD / Blu-ray
Tales of cops spiraling out of control don’t get a lot darker than this. Watch Woody Harrelson hit rock bottom, bounce a bit, then hit it again. Great performance, but if the narrative had lived up to it we really might have had something special.
The Daily Shotgun: May 14th
By: Henry J. Fromage -
Here’s some titillating news for ya: Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) and Chris O’Dowd (the cop from Bridesmaids) are teaming up for competitive salsa dancing comedy. Cuban Fury will tell the tale of a former teen salsa superstar (Frost), who takes up dancing again to face off against the dancer who destroyed his career (O’Dowd). This all gives me a British Blades of Glory vibe that sounds pretty awesome, although before you get too excited you should know that it was British tabloid The Sun that broke the story. If you’re unfamiliar with them, they have a track record that makes The National Enquirer look like a bastion of journalistic integrity.
Admittedly, quality has improved ever since they installed Batboy as Editor-in-Chief
Frederico Fellini won great acclaim making introspective, arthouse films that smudged the line dividing the real and the surreal. Just a few years ago, the musical adaptation Nine tried to capture some of his genius by telling the story of the making of his masterpiece, 8 1/2. The results were pretty mixed, but that hasn’t stopped Homeland creator Henry Bromwell from writing and directing Fellini Black and White. This film will investigate the mystery of what the director was up to when he disappeared a few nights before the 1957 Oscars only to reappear just in time for the ceremony. Brazilian actor Wagner Moura (Elite Squad) is the very interesting choice to play Fellini, with Terrence Howard, Peter Dinklage, and William H. Macy in support. So, what was Fellini up to during that time? The official synopsis involves jazz, surfing, and veterinarians for some reason, but don’t discount terrorist abduction and brainwashing.
You know, normal mysterious disappearance stuff…
Remember when Owen Wilson starred in action movies? It’s been awhile, ten years by my count, depending on how you classify Starsky & Hutch and how that proves you never saw it. Well, he’s gotten around to lining up another one, The Coup with John Erick Dowdle, the director of Devil, which you probably thought M. Knight Shyamalan did. In it he’ll play a family man forced to protect the domicile with his secret government training when a coup threatens the Southeast Asian country they live in. This all doesn’t sound like the greatest fit for Wilson, but perhaps they’ll finally get around to explaining that nose.
It looks like whoever tried to fix it attempted to punch it back in place
God Bless America (2012)
By: Henry J. Fromage (Four Beers) -
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Hey, remember Bobcat Goldthwait?
Retreat (2011)
The Retreat (2011) DVD / Blu-ray
By: Henry J. Fromage (Four Beers) -
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The psychological thriller genre’s always been a bit of a head-scratcher for me. It’s not quite drama, not quite horror, now quite action… and for such a thematic bastard child, it’s usually pretty formulaic: A) a protagonist (or romantic pair of protagonists) with B) a past secret or tragedy C) find themselves in a dangerous situation they don’t understand, D) facing a mysterious antagonist. Red herring, red herring, plot twist, facing up to fear/past, confrontation, role reversal?, plot twist, the end… or is it? Even subverting these conventions has itself become pretty conventional, so it’s becoming increasingly hard for me to get all that excited about thrillers these days.
The Daily Shotgun: May 12th
By: Henry J. Fromage -
I keep forgetting how stupid prolific novelist and screenwriter Nick Hornby is until I see him attached to another couple of projects. Besides writing the original novels High Fidelity, Fever Pitch, and About a Boy, he also wrote the Oscar-nominated script for An Education. His next novel to be optioned was A Long Way Down, which tells the story of four people who run into each other on New Year’s Day in a location… where they all planned to commit suicide. Pierce Brosnan will play a talk show host in the midst of a scandal, Toni Collette will be the mother of a disabled son, and Emile Hirsch will handle the role of a pizza delivery guy who gave up his dreams for his girlfriend only to have her dump him. No word yet on No word yet on who’ll play the foul-mouthed teen girl with family issues. Since it’s Hornby, expect a more hopeful tone than the details would suggest, although if he decided to go all J-Horror on us, that would ratchet up my interest just a bit more…
Although I guess the fact that not all of the characters are school girls makes that remote.
Hey, look, Nick Hornby again. This time he’s in screenwriter mode, adapting Colm Toibin’s novel Brooklyn with the white-hot Rooney Mara attached to star as an Irish woman in the 50s who emigrates to theU.S. A love triangle develops when she falls for an Italian plumber but is then called back toIreland by some tragic news, and meets a man there. She’s forced to choose between not just the two men, but her old and new lives.
Things look bad for Mario, but I’m rooting for him…
Hey, look, Rooney Mara again. She’s been one of the most in-demand actresses in the business after The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and the next project she’s landed is Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. Casey Affleck and Ben Foster will co-star in a tale of a con who escapes from prison and treks across Texas to meet up with his wife and young daughter. No word on roles yet, but I’m gonna go out on a limb here and tab Mara for the wife. There’s apparently a Bonnie & Clyde angle to it all as well, so perhaps after he reunites the family they all go on a killing spree together. While we’re spitballin’, with the kid involved maybe they can tag it as “like Baby Geniuses, but with hyperviolence.”
Although that might have been in the original as well… to lazy to verify.
The Daily Shotgun: May 11th
By: Henry J. Fromage -
It didn’t take Gary Ross long to bounce back after bailing on the Hunger Games sequel, but then again a half a billion GWs and still going will do that for you. He has a few projects that he’s been attached to in the past that could get exhumed, but if he wants to get back on the big budget horse right away it looks like Houdini will be his mount. The script is based on an exciting, although historically dubious, book that contested that magician and escape artist Harry Houdini was also a spy for England and the Secret Service as well as a player in pre-Communist Russia. The tone they’re shooting for is somewhere between Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones, and expect to start hearing Johnny Depp and Robert Downey, Jr. rumors any time now.
Although, Hugh Jackman and his cloning machine would both be a fit and explain a lot…
One entertainment news story I just can’t resist is the “stacked cast” one. Now, I have a broader definition of that than some folks, but I think we can agree that any cast with Ben Kingsley, John Malkovich, Armie Hammer, and Michael Sheen qualifies. They’ll all be taking part in the long-gestating Black List script project Cut Bank, which follows a mechanic and former high school football star whose quest to get out of his small town existence threatens both himself and the town as a whole. Another thing I’m a sucker for: “X meets Y” descriptions. And “John Ford by way of David Fincher” has a particularly nice ring to it, no?
“What’s in the box? What’s in the box?!”
The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman is also lining up a pretty deep cast, with Shia LaBoeuf starring and Melissa Leo, Evan Rachel Wood, and Mads Mikkelsen in support. LaBoeuf will play a man who falls in love with Wood, who has ties to a violent Serbian war criminal and gangster (Mikkelsen), who beats LaBoeuf’s ass repeatedly and to the point where he’s faced with a terrible choice. If that sounds fairly conventional to you, Leo will be playing his mother… who’s dead and pops up to advise him occasionally. Oh, and Moby will score the thing. Not that that matters- you’ll watch just to see LaBoeuf take some punches, something that he apparently does with regularity.
You know that guy’s yelling “Transformers!”
