Film review: Young Adult

by admin

Young Adult (MA15+) Director: Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) Starring: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt (above), Elizabeth Reaser. Verdict: Effortlessly reaching full immaturity. Stars: * *

FILE this one under “great talents wasted”.

Director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody reunite to recapture some of the skewed and shrewd magic of their hit Juno.

Charlize Theron turns herself inside out to play a role as against type as her Oscar-winning display in Monster.

Stand-up comic Patton Oswalt chimes in with a performance so finely rendered it makes you wish his character was the subject of the picture.

And yet, Young Adult never grows up enough to get over the kooky novelty of its premise.

It is a movie so impressed with its own pitch – hey folks, come and watch classy Charlize be all slobby and slutty! – that it doesn’t bother crafting any kind of worthwhile follow-through.

Back to the reteaming of Reitman and Cody. The big mistake they have made is over-estimating the appeal and sophistication of the material they are working with.

To put it bluntly, Juno worked wonders because it was primarily a work of social satire, cleverly highlighting the moral hypocrisies endured by a young single mother-to-be.

Young Adult is a work of anti-social satire whose featured character is an amoral hypocrite. End of story. » Read more: Film review: Young Adult

Posted in Movie Film Review

Lionsgate to use Facebook for film launch

by admin

Lionsgate will be the first movie studio to include Facebook rentals in a home entertainment launch of a national feature film when it releases Abduction on Tuesday.

The use of Facebook to release the movie – on the same day that it will also be sold on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download – demonstrates a new confidence in the social networking group’s ability to generate unique online video rentals in the critical early weeks of a home release, and help studios gather personal information about film viewers for future marketing efforts.

“Basically, we’ll get [viewers’] emails,” said Anne Parducci, executive vice-president of marketing at Lionsgate. “We already know who our fans of the [Facebook] page are, but we don’t have a direct to consumer relationship with them.”

About 14 movie studios have experimented with offering previously released movies for rental on Facebook since Warner Brothers made The Dark Knight available last March, according to Dean Alms, vice-president of marketing at Milyoni, the California-based company that makes social entertainment software for studios.

He said today’s release of a new film marks a turning point for Facebook movie viewing.

“Movie studios are going from awareness to adoption,” Mr Alms said. “We’re seeing more and newer social applications.”

Lionsgate, for example, will offer access to an exclusive interview with Taylor Lautner, the teen star of Abduction, to fans who answer a trivia question about the film while watching it on Facebook.

Also, during key scenes, pop-up boxes will appear on the screen with a quote from the scene, or a 20-second clip of it, and give users an option to write a note and post it on Facebook. If a friend watches the movie later, she will see that comment float by in the bottom half of the screen during that same point in the film. » Read more: Lionsgate to use Facebook for film launch

Posted in Movies or Films

Digital restoration lets silent movie ‘Wings’ get its say

by admin

This is the rare awards season in which two contemporary movies — Golden Globe winners Hugo and The Artist— celebrate the silent era of filmmaking. Now it’s time to make way for a returning original.

The 1927 film Wings, winner of the first best-picture Academy Award and the only silent film to achieve the honor, has been restored to its original glory. Paramount Pictures is unveiling the refurbished movie at a special Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences screening this week and will release it next Tuesday on Blu-ray and DVD.

“This is an incredibly important film and restoration,” says Randy Haberkamp, the academy’s director of educational projects. “Like Star Wars and Avatar later, Wings pushed the limits of filmmaking. It stands as an exciting film, not as a relic.”

The film starred one of the era’s biggest names in Clara Bow, along with Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen, who play pilots shipped off to fly fighter planes in World War I. It also features the breakout performance of Gary Cooper, who would go on to become a screen legend.

“Gary Cooper has a very small scene, but it’s incredibly effective,” Haberkamp says. “This was the film where people sat up and said, ‘Wow, who’s that?’ ” » Read more: Digital restoration lets silent movie ‘Wings’ get its say

Posted in Movies Films