February 2013 – Moviewallas

Episode 177 – Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters / Side Effects

In this episode of Moviewallas we review:

– Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters

– Side Effects

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:59 — 27.5MB)

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FILMING BEGINS ON ALCON ENTERTAINMENT’S “PRISONERS” | MOVIE NEWS

Moviewallas

Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal head an outstanding cast in director Denis Villeneuve’s dramatic thriller

BURBANK, CA – February 20, 2013 – Principal photography is underway on location in Georgia for Alcon Entertainment’s “Prisoners,” a Warner Bros. Pictures’ release starring Oscar® nominees Hugh Jackman (“Les Misérables”) and Jake Gyllenhaal (“Brokeback Mountain”), under the direction of Denis Villeneuve, who helmed the Oscar®-nominated foreign language film “Incendies.”

How far would you go to protect your child? Keller Dover (Jackman) is facing every parent’s worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces the only suspect’s release.

Knowing his child’s life is at stake, the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. The desperate father will do whatever it takes to find the girls, but in doing so, he may lose himself, begging the question: When do you cross the line between seeking justice and becoming a vigilante?

Led by Jackman and Gyllenhaal, the dramatic thriller “Prisoners” features an all- star cast, including Maria Bello (“Beautiful Boy”) as Keller’s distraught wife, Grace; Oscar® nominees Terrence Howard (“Hustle & Flow”) and Viola Davis (“The Help,” “Doubt”) as Franklin and Nancy Birch, whose daughter Joy went missing with the Dovers’; Academy Award® winner Melissa Leo (“The Fighter”) as Alex Jones’ Aunt Holly; and Paul Dano (“Looper”) as Alex Jones.

Denis Villeneuve directs the film from an original screenplay by Aaron Guzikowski (“Contraband”). Kira Davis, Adam Kolbrenner, and Academy Award® nominees Broderick Johnson and Andrew A. Kosove (“The Blind Side”) are the producers, with John Starke, Ed McDonnell, Stephen Levinson, Robyn Meisinger and Mark Wahlberg serving as executive producers.

Villeneuve is supported by a top-flight creative team that includes 10-time Oscar®-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins (“Skyfall”), Oscar®-nominated production designer Patrice Vermette (“The Young Victoria”), Oscar®-winning editor Joel Cox (“Unforgiven”), editor Gary Roach (“J. Edgar”), and costume designer Renée April (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”).

Alcon Entertainment’s “Prisoners” is scheduled for release on September 20, 2013, and will be distributed domestically by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Lore | Review

Moviewallas Reviews

LORE, the second film from Australian director Cate Shortland (Somersault) is a riveting and complex look into a rarely seen legacy of the Holocaust.

When her SS officer father and mother, a staunch Nazi believer, are captured by the allies at the end of World War II, Lore, a fourteen-year-old German girl (Saskia Rosendahl) is left to fend for herself and must lead her four siblings on a harrowing journey across a devastated country. When she meets the charismatic and mysterious young refugee Thomas, (Kai Malina, The White Ribbon,) Lore soon finds her world shattered by feelings of hatred and desire as she must put her trust in the very person she was always taught to hate in order to survive.

Lore is more than an average coming of age tale as it slowly simmers, teasing and testing us with the question “How can someone be wrong for believing what they are raised to” and more importantly that there are always casualties on both sides of any war. The story is a triumph in showing how far one goes to protect the ones that they love and to whom they are duty bound.

Striking newcomer Saskia Rosendahl is a pleasure to watch and will certainly be noticed for this mesmerizing performance in the title role. Her quiet beauty and display of emotion is admirable for someone so young and she is supported by an equally talented younger cast.

Screenwriters Shortland and Robin Mukherjee have done a marvelous job of adapting Rachel Seiffert’s novel The Dark Room (Man Booker Prize finalist, LA Times Prize for First Fiction). In fact, Random House will re-publish the novel The Dark Room to coincide with the film’s February theatrical release.

Cinematographer Adam Arkapaw (Animal Kingdom, Snowtown) does an equally fine job of capturing the bleak and lush landscapes of the countryside. At times we feel like we are watching a painting unfolding.

LORE opened in Los Angeles and New York on February 8 and will be followed by a national roll-out

Winner: Audience Award, 2012 Locarno Film Festival

Winner: Golden Starfish Narrative Feature Award, 2012 Hamptons Film Festival

Winner: Kodak Award for Cinematography, 2012 Hamptons Film Festival

Winner: Bronze Horse for Best Film, Saskia Rosendahl for Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Musical Score, 2012 Stockholm Film Festival

Winner: Best Film, 2012 Hamburg Film Festival

Official Selection: 2012 Toronto International Film Festival-Special Presentations

Official Selection: 2012 Locarno Film Festival Winner: Audience Award

Official Selection: 2012 Sydney Film Festival

2013 Australian Film Institute Awards (Australian Oscars)- Nominated for Best Film, Best Young Actor, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Sound

Episode 176 – Stand Up Guys / Quartet

Moviewallas

In this week’s Moviewallas we discuss:

– Stand Up Guys

– Quartet

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:12 — 21.3MB)

Visit www.moviewallas.com for reviews, articles, film festival coverage and more!

Revisiting John Hughes; the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival

Directors Film Festivals Review Toronto International Film Festival

Hello everyone, Yazdi here. If you are based in Canada, and specifically a Toronto denizen, you are in for a treat.

Starting this Friday, February 15th, the good people at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) have organized the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival. And the theme for the fest is young movie lovers. It includes an enviably well curated selection of movies about the young in cinema. The full schedule for the films can be found at http://tiff.net/nextwave. All films will be playing February 15-17th at the festival flagship venue, the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

In addition to the film screenings, there is even a 24-hour film. According to the website, “TIFF Next Wave challenges teams of high-school-aged youth to make an original short film in just 24 hours, from 6pm on Thursday, February 14 to 6pm on Friday, February 15, just in time for Battle of the Scores. All films that meet the competition criteria will be screened at TIFF Bell Lightbox on the closing day of the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival, Sunday, February 17.”

No festival of films about the young can be complete without screenings from the John Hughes pantheon. And the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival has one-upped the stakes by a full on John Hughes Film Marathon as part of the fest. Even better, high school students can attend the Hughes marathon free! It does not get better than this.

One of the films I viewed at the 2012 TIFF was the Spanish language movie Promocion Fantasma (Ghost Graduation). A half-hour into the movie, I stopped analyzing the film and surrendered to its silly, giddy charms. Clearly an homage to the John Hughes films from the 80s, Ghost Graduation is one of the featured films at TIFF Next Wave Film Festival and worth exploring.Here is what I wrote about Ghost Graduation in my 2012 TIFF write-up:

“If your list of comfort-food movies invariably includes films from the eighties, you will be sure to love Ghost Graduation (Promocion Fantasma). This is a light-hearted piffle of a film that only exists to get as many laughs as possible as it (re)visits the John Hughes universe. The director of this Spanish-language film, Javier Ruiz Caldera, mentioned in the Q and A after the film that the plot emerged from the premise of what might have happened if the characters from The Breakfast Club never got out of detention but died and were stuck as ghosts in their high school for the next twenty years. In this film, a school teacher who can see the dead has to help these ghosts resolve unfinished business so they can move on and stop haunting the school. The reason why Joss Whedon was the apt choice to make The Avengers is because he is a geek about the universe of these comic books and he gets these characters. A filmmaker who taps into his own outsized love for a particular story or genre will always do a better job than another who does not have that love, no matter how technically accomplished the latter may be. Well, here is a filmmaker who gets those seminal films from the eighties and he nails that sensibility in his own directorial debut. At the TIFF screening, he got a long round of applause at the end of the film. Sometimes all you need to do is make a film about something you love, and the rest takes care of itself. Incidentally, I wonder if John Hughes will be someone whose cache will continue to grow in the coming decades. He is not typically invoked during mention of the cinema greats. We will find out, but I suspect time will be kind to the legacy of John Hughes films”.

I am glad to see that the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival is already doing its part to keep the Hughes legacy relevant to a new generation of film lovers.

Episode 175 – The 2013 Oscars Reaction Show

Award Shows Moviewallas

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Well it is for movie fans because the official Oscar Nominations are out and you’ve got a few weeks to catch them before the Academy Awards on 24 February 2013. Find out what we thought of the nominations in this week’s show!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:39 — 62.9MB)

Visit www.moviewallas.com for reviews, articles, film festival coverage and more!