Screengrab Fall Preview: Scott Von Doviak’s Picks

Scott Von Doviak — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:30:00 GMT

We’ve reached that part of the summer when Rainn Wilson comedies and films by Fred Durst are considered top new releases, so it must be time to look ahead to the fall. Traditionally this is the movie season for Oscar contenders and challenging indie fare, so let’s put away the robots and superhero tights and play a little 3 Up, 3 Down. (Feel free to weigh in with your own picks, my fellow Screengrabbers – if you dare.)

3 UP

1. Burn After Reading – No Country for Old Men was a return to form for the Coens, and we’re all happy they finally got their Oscars. But it’s been a while since we’ve had a pure shot of that Coen Brothers feeling. No Country was adapted from a Cormac McCarthy novel, The Ladykillers was a remake, and Intolerable Cruelty originated with other writers. Based on the trailer, Burn After Reading looks like a return to the inventive goofiness of The Big Lebowski and O Brother Where Art Thou?, which puts it right in my wheelhouse.

2. The Road – Speaking of Cormac McCarthy, the second adaptation of his work in as many years in due in November. The grim post-apocalyptic tale is brought to the screen by John Hillcoat, director of The Proposition, a western that certainly counts McCarthy’s Blood Meridian among its influences. Viggo Mortenson has the lead, and the supporting cast includes Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Garrett Dillahunt and The Wire’s Omar himself, Michael K. Williams.

3. Synecdoche, New York – Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut didn’t exactly wow most critics at Cannes, but the guy hasn’t let me down yet. (Well, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind didn’t really do it for me, but I’ll blame Sam Rockwell for that.) Even if it doesn’t really work, the premise – which has theater director Philip Seymour Hoffman building a replica of New York in a warehouse – should provide more of the Kauf’s trademark reality-bending weirdness.

3 DOWN

1. The Day the Earth Stood Still – Unnecessary remake of a sci-fi classic, with Keanu Reeves as an alien? The first time I saw this trailer, I thought it was a fake. The second time, I just said “No thanks.”

2. Twilight – I understand I’m not the target demographic for this “y.a.” phenomenon, but I still resent the fact that it’s in my face everywhere I go these days, and that’s only going to get worse as the release of this adaptation approaches.

3. The Women – This has got to be the uber-chick flick of the year: Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Bette Midler and Debra Messing in a remake of the George Cukor classic. If I grow a vagina between now and when it comes out, maybe I’ll reconsider.

WILD CARD

Oliver Stone’s W. This can’t possibly be any good, can it? And yet I can’t wait to see it. We might be looking at a train wreck for the ages here.

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Trailer Review: Choke

Paul Clark — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Sam Rockwell has been working steadily in movies for almost twenty years now in both comedy and drama, but in since the beginning of the decade he’s really come into his own. But while character work as diverse as Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Assassination of Jesse James, and Joshua (my favorite performance of 2007, case you’re wondering), has made him one of the most fascinating actors currently working, he still hasn’t managed to find a true star-making role. If its trailer is any indication, Choke could change that. Based on a novel by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk, Choke’s Victor Mancini is a perfect fit with the smart-assed, sleepy-eyed underachiever types that Rockwell as always excelled at playing. But what distinguishes this film is that Victor is the protagonist, as we follow his misadventures as a con man and sex addict trying to care for his terminally-ill mother and finding a way to be not completely irredeemable as a person. But while director Clark Gregg’s style appears to be a far cry from David Fincher’s attention-grabbing Fight Club visuals, he’s at least had the good sense to surround Rockwell with a worthy cast of costars, especially Anjelica Huston as his mother and Kelly MacDonald (*drool*) as the tentative object of his affection. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.

The Screengrab : confessions of a dangerous mind

Screengrab Fall Preview: Scott Von Doviak’s Picks

Trailer Review: Choke