Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Casting, New Releases, Celebrities and Controversy, 20th Century Fox, Movie Marketing, Politics

Call it performance art, savage prank behavior or audacious social satire. Call it whatever you want, but there's no question Sacha Baron Cohen is at it again. As Erik reported back in March, the Borat star began surfacing as his Bruno alter-ego in a variety of absurd situations likely intended for the movie starring the effeminate European character. Wearing chains at a Kansas church? Check. Weirding out Ben Affleck? Check. Airport dancing? Yep. Now, bizarre reports of a cage match in Arkansas, where attendees paid for admission expecting to watch a fight and instead witnessed two men get naked and lock lips, suggests Cohen is still at it, more than three months down the line. Not only that, but he appears to have pulled the stunt twice: First on June 5 at the Four States Fair Grounds in Texarkana, then again at Fort Smith's convention center, where a character named "Straight Dave" apparently selected a planted audience member to challenge him.

Whether or not you agree with Cohen's brash style -- he claims to take inspiration from Michael Moore's stunts --
the actor definitely constructs his gags with very specific ideas in mind. Borat took a stab at American stereotypes of foreign cultures, but Bruno looks like it's geared more towards attacking homophobia -- specifically as it manifests in middle America. However, it's hard to say whether or not such excessive spectacles will manage to correct misinformed perspectives or reinforce them.

Continue reading Discuss: Do Sacha Baron Cohen's Antics Bother You?

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Executive Director Joe Zina is leaving the Coolidge Corner Theatre at the end of the year, and a new chapter in one of the few remaining Art Deco moviegoing jewels will begin.

From the press release: "After an incredibly active and prolific 10-year career as the Executive Director of the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation, Joe Zina will be stepping down from his position at the end of the year. Zina, who was previously on the Board of Directors at the theater and took the position of Executive Director in 1998, will be moving on to pursue personal artistic projects including consulting with community cultural centers on dance and film. During the past ten years, Zina initiated and oversaw extensive upgrades and renovations to the theater which included a stunning restoration to the original Art Deco details of the historic cultural landmark. During this period the Coolidge launched a successful $2.5 million capital campaign and expanded capabilities for live performance and community programs in the two main auditoriums. Included were the installation of new Dolby digital surround sound systems and two renovated stages. In May of 2002, the theatre made the first public announcement of the renovations and capital campaign with the unveiling of the award-winning art-deco-style marquee, a celebration which drew thousands of participants and sparked a revitalization of the Coolidge Corner business community."

All true and still not quite getting to the heart of the matter. The Coolidge, once upon a time a cherished neighborhood movie theater, then a classic revival house, then a hulk that came this close to the wrecking ball, is now a Boston institution -- one of the rare picture palaces that has made the transition to art-house success with its big screen mostly intact. (Here's the theater's Cinema Treasures entry, plus the history page at the Coolidge's website.)

Even better, it has thrived, anchoring not just Coolidge Corner but the Boston independent scene (along with the comparatively battered Brattle). Zina has had everything to do with this, bringing the energy of a former dancer and the people skills of a born macher to raising the Coolidge's profile and financial base.

When he arrived, the Coolidge was $350,000 in the hole and wasn't making its rent. In the years since, attendance has steadily climbed (against a downward national trend) and membership is through the roof. Without Zina and the people he has hired, would there have been a Coolidge Award bringing Meryl Streep and Thelma Schoonmaker to town? Not likely. Is there anywhere else in town you can see "Lawrence of Arabia" -- last night's offering -- in the 70mm splendor it deserves? Nuh-uh.

In addition, the Coolidge under Joe has programmed the best of the new off-Hollywood films, not an easy task when the Landmark chain is eating into the programming and profits of independent moviehouses. And that's not even mentioning the midnight shows and book readings and burlesque revues and other events that have made the theater a vital (and nicely twisted) fixture on the local cultural scene. The theater is irreplaceable; I worry that Joe might be as well. The search for a new executive director begins immediately.

I know Will Smith is Mr. Fourth of July and all, but, yoiks, $107 million for "Hancock" since last Tuesday? And $66 million over the long weekend alone? At almost 4,000 theaters, that's a mighty fine $16,600 per theater average -- not bad for a movie that commits hari-kiri at the midway point and falls over stone dead. (I mean, you've seen the movie -- did you really buy that? Really?)

This was the kind of opener the industry's been hoping for, even in a stronger than expected summer, and it managed the feat of throwing "WALL-E" into the box office shadows of second place with $33 million. (Leonard Klady at Movie City News believes the latest from Pixar will ultimately get outgrossed by the simpler and more broad-appeal "Kung Fu Panda." You may start weeping now.)

"Wanted," interestingly, added a few more theaters but still dropped off by 60%, meaning those who wanted to see it saw it opening weekend. Jolie may have legs but I'm betting the movie doesn't. Also roadkill was "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," which expanded from 15 theaters to almost 2,000 and eked out $3.6 million. Guess the warm advance reviews weren't able to get audiences out of the Will Smith habit.

Down in indieland, "The Wackness" opened at six theaters with a very strong $25K per theater average, which bodes well for its Boston opening this Friday. Those of you who've been waiting to see A) Josh from Nickelodeon's "Drake and Josh" play a pot-dealing high schooler in 1994 Manhattan and B) Mary-Kate Olsen and Ben Kingsley having wild monkey sex in a phone booth will be well served. "Gonzo," the Hunter S. Thompson docu, actually outgrossed "Wackness" $190K to $180K, but played in over four times as many theaters, so you do the math.

The Box Office Mojo chart has more numbers.

Filed under: Casting, Celebrities and Controversy, Harry Potter

Harry Potter has got to end sometime, and by "sometime" I mean in less than three years when the second cinematic half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sees release. And some people would like to still have a career when that happens, thank you very much. To that end, Rupert Grint -- a.k.a. Ron Weasley -- has taken a role in an indie film called Cherry Bomb, which sounds about as far from Harry Potter as you can get without developing an erotic fixation on horses.

The film, written by acclaimed playwright Daragh Caville, focuses on three teens who set out for a wild weekend of drugs, sex and crime only to see it escalate into something far more serious than they imagined. It co-stars relative unknowns Robert Sheehan and Kimberley Nixon, and is set for release next year.

While Daniel Radcliffe has tried more extreme methods of branching out (mainly by taking that infamous role in Equus, which is coming to Broadway per the above link) and Emma Watson hasn't done very much at all (she voices a character in this year's The Tale of Despereaux, but that seems to be it), Grint has spent what spare time he has toiling away in indieville. Cherry Bomb was preceded by the reasonably well-received and much less racy Driving Lessons, about a troubled boy's friendship with a retired actress.

Continue reading Rupert Grint Plans for the Future, Takes Role in Edgy Indie Drama

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Every time Pixar, that is now officially part of the House of the Mouse, pitches a new film to its audience by the means of releasing an excruciatingly small teaser or just some conceptual art, I can’t help but wonder how they are going to pull it off this time. WALL•E, as their latest effort is called, was a project that evolved even before Pixar scored big time with Toy Story that initially sounded and felt rather cold and machine-like. Like good wine, the film was shelved for nearly ten years, turning it into Pixar’s most ambitious and tender project to date. (more…)

I'm way late off the dime on this, but flipping through Paul Sherman's book "Big Screen Boston" has been so much fun I just have to logroll it in this space.

You'd think that, aside from the recent flurry of Hollywood-on-the-Charles action, there wouldn't be enough Boston set and shot movies to fill a book. And you'd think wrong. Sherman, a former Boston Herald film critic and past president of the Boston Society of Film Critics, exhumes all sorts of fascinating forgotten films, like 1950's "Mystery Street" (aka "Murder at Harvard," photo above) and 1979's "Billy in the Lowlands." Of course the usual suspects are here: "The Departed" and "Boondock Saints," "Charly" and "Good Will Hunting." And 1973's "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," which Sherman rightly cites as the best Bahston movie evah. "Big Screen Boston" gets into the history and into the vast gulf between real Boston and screen Boston; he lays out everything that got left on the cutting room floor in "A Civil Action."

The Harvard documentary axis is fully represented, as are all those indie strivers making neighborhood movies that seemingly went nowhere. They went into Sherman's memory banks is where they went, and now they're between the pages of his enclusive, smartly-written book. An essential purchase for Bay State cinemaniacs, this does what all good movie books do: Makes you want to run out and see the movies.

There's a nice interview with Sherman on the New England Film website.

Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Casting, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels

Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant cast just became a whole lot crazier. Variety is reporting that Val Kilmer and Xzibit are joining Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes in the much-maligned remake / re-imagining / re-something of Abel Ferrara's cult classic.

Kilmer will be playing Cage's police partner, presumably the straight arrow to complement Cage's cop-on-the-edge. This comes right on the heels of Kilmer being cast in Silver Cord, so I think it's safe to say someone's trying to make a comeback. (Am I the only one who laments the passing of years, and what it has done to one of my biggest crushes? Has it really been so long since The Saint?)

Xzibit, fresh off The X-Files: I Want to Believe, will be playing their nemesis, Big Fade.
Remember, folks, it's a re-imagining, which is why you don't remember any of these characters from the original.

If there aren't shockingly hilarious tales of egos and fistfights from the Lieutenant set, I'll be among the bitterly disappointed. While I suspect Kilmer has chilled with the passing of years, I'm thinking that combining him with Herzog is bound to be tempestuous. Is it too much to ask that Herzog just goes even further, and hires Sean Young and Gary Busey? Perhaps even Mike Myers? Throw the script out the window, and just film the production. I think it would be far more fun than any re-imagining.

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Filed under: RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy

Apparently, Hollywood (and all watching) cheered too soon -- a representative for Rose McGowan has hit back at the reports that she has split with Robert Rodriguez, or scrapped their movies. McGowan's rep told People Magazine that "the production of all three films is moving forward with Rose to star." And one of those mysterious sources "close" to the actress insisted their relationship was fine.

Now, naturally we here at Cinematical could really care less about the status of their engagement -- we just wanted to know what was going to happen to those movies. And that all depends which dubious glossy you believe -- the New York Post, who broke the story, or the damage controlling People. We all know those official statements and mysterious sources can mean nothing in six months.

But even if this was all tabloid fiction, it really should serve as a wake-up call for Rodriguez and McGowan. What must it be like to turn on your television, laptop, or radio and hear people rejoicing over your break-up in the hopes that, now, Red Sonja would not be remade? They've even gone so far as to "officially" recast Barbarella with Jessica Alba on many news sites. That has to hurt. So, maybe it's time for you crazy kids to scale it back a bit. Pick one of your three love projects to make (we can give you that much), and then devote your time and talents to a movie that doesn't involve your other half. I can't really speak for McGowan, but might I humbly suggest A Dame to Kill For to Rodriguez?

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Filed under: Animation, Classics, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, New Releases, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Scripts, 20th Century Fox, DIY/Filmmaking, Politics, Obits, Images, Stars in Rewind

Even the weirder artists of the twentieth century have been attracted to the allure of Hollywood filmmaking, and Salvador Dali was no exception. In the fall of 1941, the surrealist painter hosted a masquerade party at Pebble Beach during one of his regular visits to the town. Called "Surrealism Night in An Enchanted Forest," the fundraising event, intended to assist European refugee artists, brought out a number of stars, including Bob Hope and Ginger Rogers. It was here, the story goes, that Dali became attached to a major studio production called Moontide. The great German emigre Fritz Lang was hired to direct the movie, and asked Dali to create a three-minute nightmare sequence for the film. Unfortunately, after the incident at Pearl Harbor later that year, Twentieth Century Fox deemed the project too bleak. Lang was replaced, and Dali's nightmare sequence went with him.

Although inspired by the movies, Dali didn't always have the easiest time making them. He would get another chance to inject his hallucinatory vision into American cinema with the hypnosis scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, but it's his unrealized projects that truly indicate the scope of the painter's ambition. So many ideas, such little time. Dali: Painting and Film, a breathtakingly unique exhibit currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, surveys Dali's completed cinematic works in addition to tidbits from the ones that never came to fruition. Marvelously structured to show how his paintings were intentionally cinematic, the exhibit contains all the obvious highlights from Dali's movie career alongside lesser-known productions. The importance in film history of his collaborations with Luis Bunuel remain uncontested; two large screens in separate rooms showing Un Chien Andalou (where the opening eye splicing retains its original gross-out impact) and L'Age D'Or attest to that. Fewer visitors, however, might know about Dali's collaboration with the Marx Brothers on a deliriously strange movie that sounded too good to be true.

Continue reading Cinematical Visits MOMA's "Dali: Painting and Film" Exhibit

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Filed under: RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom

We usually don't report the goings-on of Hollywood relationships (be them long term or of the booty call variety), however this one is pretty epic. According to -- ugh -- the New York Post, sweethearts Rose McGowan and Robert Rodriguez are no longer together and no longer getting married (they were engaged prior to this). Why is this important news? Why should people care? Well, partly because Rodriguez was in the process of lining up a few interesting movie remakes (Barbarella, Red Sonja) with McGowan in the lead. One imagines McGowan had snagged the roles because, well, she was boinking Robert Rodriguez. But when there's no more action between the sheets, does that mean there's no more McGowan in the starring role?

The Post claims their break-up was partly due to the fact that Rodriguez was having a hard time finding financing for Barbarella with McGowan in the lead because she's not a big enough box-office draw. I know some of you beg to differ because she's got the hot "I'll sleep with your man if you leave him alone for five seconds and he can put me in one of his movies" seductress thing going on, but could you seriously see a flick starring Rose McGowan bringing in at least $70 million (reported budget for Barbarella) to the box office? Personally, I can't. With Jessica Alba or Charlize Theron or Angelina Jolie? Sure. Not Rose McGowan. (Last time I checked, her ass didn't exactly ignite a box office firestorm for Grindhouse.)

Should be interesting to see what develops from here. What would you like to see happen?

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