I *heart* movies

Honest to blog, we can be a jaded lot sometimes. (Yes, I can hear you grinding your teeth in anger for referencing JUNO!) Well, Final Girl has challenged us all today to not be cynical, blase, or unmoved by our passion for film and our spare time at work to write about it.

In her words, it's the "HEY, INTERNET, STOP BEING SUCH CYNICAL EFFING DOUCHEBAGS BLOG-A-THON!"

Final Girl asks us to "Write about a movie you adore. Write about a single movie moment you adore. A performance, an actor, a trailer you're looking forward to like crazy. Write about that time you went to the movies and what you saw made you so happy you wanted to make out with the screen. Write about that film you couldn't stop thinking about for days, and how awesome that feeling is."

I think it's a pretty keen idea, so here goes:

Dude, I'm telling you that really happened, for REAL!

It's 1999, I'm working in the warehouse of a highly upscale department store, and much to my chagrin, I eventually explain to a co-worker that THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT isn't a documentary. I love the fact that the marketing actually confused people. It reminds me of the time I faked a dead body in the woods for my best friend to find on his birthday. Good times.

Coming Attractions

Remember when one of the only ways to find out about a new movie was to be surprised by it's trailer in a theatre? Me neither ;) Regardless, I love trailers. It's a little premature rush of joy and expectation for something that can seem so perfect, like catching a smile from a beautiful stranger on the other side of the room. Sure, she might just turn out to be a drug dealer, but at least that first contact was pure and full of hope. Hardly original I'm sure, but being utterly stunned by the CLOVERFIELD trailer last summer was a brilliant bit of awesome, and it completely overshadowed the infuriating parody of a film I was there to see in the first place.

"He IS the Kwisatz Haderach!"

Fresh in my mind after the recent news that Peter Burg wants to go back to the desert planet of DUNE one more time, I have a great love for the film version by David Lynch. There's an utterly haunting and creepy scene right near the end where Alia (played by the then 8 year old Alicia Witt) stands silently, knife raised, destruction all around her, triumphant. It freaks me out every time!

Alicia Witt as Alia, relevant to posting

Alicia Witt now, completely irrelevant to posting

There are wolves in the cinema

No one can argue that the best place to see a film is in a theatre, crammed with like-minded folk who are there to have a good time. Many of my best experiences have been at Midnight Madness screenings during the Toronto International Film Festival. Back in 2001 at the premeire of Le Pacte des loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf) almost a thousand rabid movie fans howled along madly with the wolves on screen!

Two more reasons to howl at this film!

CLOVERFIELD review

I'm hesitant to quote a film featuring the number two Scientologist, but CLOVERFIELD had me at hello. Hell, it didn't even have a name back then! On that fateful opening weekend of last summer's "blockbuster" that shall remain nameless, I witnessed the teaser trailer and was hooked. Give me the large scale destruction of a major metropolis, leave me wanting more (what the hell was that?) AND don't distract me with a big star's face... I'm sold!

As told through 'found footage' recorded by a small group experiencing the 'event'. We meet Rob (Michael Stahl-David) at his going away party, along with his brother Jason (Mike Vogel), Jason's girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas), Rob's 'main dude' Hud (T.J. Miller), the girl Hud is crushing on, Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), and Rob's best friend/crush Beth (Odette Yustman). Panic and chaos ensues as 'something' very large cuts a swath of destruction through Manhattan, leaving our group of friends running for their lives. Everything that we see is what was camcorded my Hud, (Heads Up Display... cute) which gives us the perspective of a disaster at the ground level. It's not about a group of heroes rising up to battle the creature and save the day, it's about surviving a catastrophe too absolute to even wrap your head around, and that's what makes it compelling.


This film was pretty high on my list of anticipated releases, and the overabundant viral marketing only pulled me in more. The main characters even have MySpace pages for crying out loud! Thankfully none of it spoiled any aspect of the film, it just left me asking more questions as I pondered the origin of the creature, which is entirely inconsequential as far as the movie goes.

So, about the film... is it THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT meets GODZILLA? Sort of, and not really. Let's get the knee-jerk comparisons out of the way: shaky-cam found footage and a very large monster... check. What it's not is a slow burn of paranoia or a comment on the evils of atomic energy. It's been called a love story with a giant monster (not IN love with a giant monster, mind you) but that's only true in the sense that it's the device that gets us on the ride, and that's what it's all about.


When Rob gets a phone call from Beth, hurt and trapped in her apartment, his friends, and us in the audience, get on this great ride into the heart of the chaos. This is where the film succeeds without question, and what makes it a great theatrical experience. Or a dizzy and queasy experience, depending on your tolerance of shaky-cam. It's the thrill of the chased as they encounter the monster, the military, and navigate through the wreckage of NYC.


There has been some criticism leveled at the film for exploiting the imagery of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and you can't help but recall it's aftermath while watching scenes of buildings collapsing in Manhattan. I really didn't find it exploitive in a tasteless way, I think it's just a matter of accepting that any film that mirrors those events in any way is going to strike a cord. If it's "too soon" as some will say, then who decides when it's not? And let's face it, all manner of cinematic destruction has rained on Manhattan since we've had the technology to do so. Will we frown on movies in the past that have wrecked up NYC? What about GHOSTBUSTERS! What about ARMAGEDDON? (OK, that's a trick question.)


What I really liked about the film is what a lot of others may complain about. Not enough monster! What/how/why is this happening? I think CLOVERFIELD is a great example of "less is more". It grounds the story in terms that we can relate to, which are survival, and the safety of those we care about.

Virals are better in Japanese

It's not too difficult to figure out what film this is about. Also available in Russian, French, English, German, Italian, and Spanish!

*UPDATE

Now's there's an manga prequel story!?!

It's Alive!

Robots love viral marketing! The makers of CLOVERFIELD have come up with a contest attached to this widget that counts the number of times someone grabs the clip from your site. Not that Canadians are eligible, but it is a nice slightly extended clip of what we saw in the trailer.

It's called CLOVERFIELD damnit!

Well, it finally has a name, which is no real surprise, and now the trailer is online, if you missed it because you were not in the theatres this weekend watching BEOWULF. Also, there's a detailed breakdownof the trailer at EmpireOnline if you're keen.

In an odd bit of cross-viral marketing, if you were watching closely during the last episode of HEROES you would have noticed Elle enjoying a tasty Slusho!


Check out further cross-over madness on director/producer Greg Beeman's blog. Though it's safe to assume that the Heroes will not battle the Cloverfield monster, it does give me the excuse to put up a pic of HRG!

Now, in extra shiny Quicktime

1-18-08

What is it?

There's a ton of talk in the blogiverse about a mysterious trailer that is playing before the TRANSFORMERS. No title is given, just that it's from producer J.J. Abrams, and that it will be in theaters 1-18-08. There's a bootleg of the trailer on YouTube (or is just more viral marketing?) but I'm waiting till I see it in a theatre, and this may be an official site.
Apparently this project has been referred to as CLOVERFIELD, here's the IMDB page. Drew Goddard is scripting the thing, which gives me hope considering his previous work has been on the tv shows LOST, ANGEL, and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. This is not confirmed by IMDB, but I've read on other sites that Matt Reeves is directing, his previous work being on FELICITY and the film THE PALLBEARER.
Whatever this turns out to be, I'm digging the tease!