As a director, Ben Affleck is following up his critical success on “Gone Baby Gone” with another crime thriller adaptation set in Boston., Based on Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan, “The Town” appears to be one of those cops-and-robbers tales where the both sides get equal time and a woman is in between them. This time, Affleck is the main robber, Don Draper Jon Hamm is the cop (G-man, actually), and Rebecca Hall (“Vicky Christina Barcelona,” “Please Give“) is the woman who is, naturally, caught between them. Jeremy Renner and Blake Lively are also about.
My thoughts — this appears to have a good cast, but I wonder if director Affleck should have had second thoughts about casting himself and not his, say, his brother or, really, anyone else. True, in my view he’s gotten perhaps a little too much crap for his acting over the years. He’s been very good in a number of supporting roles. He also has been pretty darn weak in some crucial leading roles. We’ll see. Also, I didn’t love Affleck’s earlier cops-and-criminals drama quite as much as most critics, so we’ll see about this one.
Posting over the next few days is going to probably be news-free, so we’ll make hay while the cinema news sun shines. We start off with casting news.
* Jeremy Renner of “The Hurt Locker” is “near a deal” to play Hawkeye in the Avengers film to be (theoretically) directed by Joss Whedon, who hasn’t said a word officially to anyone in months, as far as I can tell. Renner is a smart choice. Playing a character who hasn’t previously been introduced is going to be a special challenge in this movie and actors without real ability and charisma probably need not apply.
* So, if the Wrap is correct, Brad Pitt likely won’t end up staring in the U.S. remake of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” It looks like that will be Daniel Craig, instead. Having seen the Swedish film, it seems to me he’s a much better fit for the part of the male lead. The character has a bit of a hang-dog, defeated quality to him that just doesn’t fit Pitt. I think Craig can pull that off easily. He should probably gain or lose a bit of weight for the part. This guy might do okay with woman, but he’s a coffee-and-cigarette addicted journalist, not a perfectly exercised super-spy.
* Speaking of matters Bondian, as per the Playlist, Christopher Nolan is describing his very highly anticipated “Inception” as his Bond film, in a way. I’m personally not a fan of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” but it’s an interesting model, nonetheless.
Jeff Bridges, “The Last American Hero” (1973): Even though Bridges’ character is named Junior Jackson, this flick does indeed tell the tale of NASCAR driver Junior Johnson. Based on the story of the same name in Tom Wolfe’s essay collection, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, those who go in expecting a straightforward racing story will be impressed by the way the film explores its characters.
Morgan Freeman, “Death of a Prophet” (1981): Everyone remembers Denzel Washington’s titular performance in Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X,” but the man formerly known as Malcolm Little had already been portrayed by several other actors by that point, including James Earl Jones (“The Greatest”), Dick Anthony Williams (“King”), and Al Freeman, Jr. (“Roots: The Next Generations”). For these purposes, however, we’re exploring the TV movie which bore the subtitle “The Last Days of Malcolm X.” In truth, you’ll get a heck of a lot more insight into Malcolm X’s life and times by way of Lee’s film, but you can’t say this isn’t an interesting trip back in time.
Colin Firth, “A Month in the Country” (1987): Based on the novel by J. L. Carr, Firth – who plays Tom Birkin, an artist who has been employed to carry out restoration work on a Medieval mural discovered in a church in Yorkshire – offers the kind of performance that no doubt left those who saw the film wondering for many years why the man hadn’t yet become a household name. Here’s hoping that the film will finally get a proper DVD release one of these days.
George Clooney, “Red Surf” (1990): It’s kind of hard not to make a “Point Break” comparison when you look at this verrrrrrry early Clooney film, wherein he and Doug Savant (Tom Scavo on “Desperate Housewives”) play a couple of surfers with a penchant for crime, but the big difference between the two motion pictures is that most people tend consider “Point Break” to be a cult classic of sorts, whereas “Red Surf” often ranks even below “The Facts of Life” amongst Clooney aficionados. It does have at least one thing going for it, though, and that’s Gene Simmons. If you loved him in “Runaway” and “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” you’ll love his work here, too.
Jeremy Renner, “Dahmer” (2002): There are a lot of better films in Renner’s back catalog, and there are certainly a lot worse (four words: “National Lampoon’s Senior Trip”), but this is one which, while certainly not for all tastes, is better than you might expect. Renner plays Dahmer, and it’s the kind of performance that, had this been a ’70s TV movie, could’ve done for him what “Helter Skelter” did for Steve Railsback. Actually, come to think of it, maybe it’s better than it wasn’t made in the ’70s. (When was the last time you saw Railsback in anything?)
Since I took a day off earlier in the week, I’ve got probably enough material for fifteen separate blog posts, but just one will have to do…
* Since about Wednesday (my day off) items about the upcoming Superman film being presided over by Christopher Nolan have been rolling out. First Latino Review broke the news in Spanglish that writer David Goyer, who has been involved with Nolan’s Batman franchise from the start, would be on board. Now IESB (via Bad Guy Wins) reports what it says are rumors that the director of the Superman film will be Christopher’s writing partner brother, Jonah, making his directorial debut.
That seems reasonable enough especially given that Nolan’s going to be busy with the third instalment in his Batman franchise. I get a bit more skeptical about the idea that Nolan will be sticking around to direct the long-mulled Justice League movie which would presumably include the new Supes (whoever he may be; sorry Brandon Routh), the current Batman (just as long as no one gets into his eyeline), and Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern, but I suppose anything is possible.
* I could spend the next week trying to figure this one, but negative PR campaigns against Best Picture Oscar nominees have become de rigeur in recent years and the shrapnel is flying in more than one direction around “The Hurt Locker.” First there were stories from Pete Hammond and a typically voracious Nikki Finke about anti-“Avatar” e-mail blasts by producer Nicolas Chartier. Today there was a far more substantive front page news story in the Los Angeles Times on some disagreements among military people about the film’s putative claims to authenticity. The most serious allegation — which doesn’t appear to be anywhere close to being proven — charges that the crew drove a Humvee into a Jordanian village in order to film angry locals.
Though I think quite highly of Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a frequent guest on Rachel Maddow’s old radio show, I think his criticism is way off-base and was surprised to see him on the anti-“Hurt Locker” side. I don’t think anything in the film indicates that the dangerous-seeking behavior of Jeremy Renner’s character is supposed to be typical, but simply one person’s reaction to an insane situation. Still, it’ s easy to understand why some might kind of forget the movie, though attempting to mirror reality to some degree, makes no claims to being anything other than fiction.
Steve Pond covers the push-back by reporter-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal.
The National Society of Film Critics has bestowed another big awards win on the Iraq war thriller, “The Hurt Locker,” which won’t hurt its Oscar possibilities. As with the two other most prestigious critics groups — the Los Angeles and New York film critics — the highly praised tale about a bomb disposal unit during the chaotic early days of the U.S. invasion won the group’s best picture award scroll.
Ironically, according to Peter Knegt of Indiewire, the last time a single film swept the best picture prize from all three groups was when Curtis Hanson’s outstanding “L.A. Confidential” managed the coup in 1997. It lost the Oscar to James Cameron‘s sentimental and spectacular romantic melodrama, “Titanic” — one of the most widely disagreed with Best Picture winners in recent history. With “Avatar” becoming a wide popular favorite and a gigantic hit, a repeat of this scenario is not outside the realm of possibility.
“The Hurt Locker” also won major prizes for director Kathryn Bigelow and star Jeremy Renner, who edged out Jeff Bridges, currently a favorite the win the Best Actor Oscar for “Crazy Heart,” as well as Nicolas Cage for “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.” For Best Supporting Actor, once again “Inglourious Basterds” break out bad guy Christoph Waltz took the top prize, with another former unknown, Christian McKay, getting the second largest number of votes from critics for “Me and Orson Welles.” The best screenplay nod went to the Coen Brothers’ ultra-dark black comedy, “A Serious Man.”
In something of an upset that, I’m guessing, might not be repeated at the Oscars, Yolande Moreau, of the French language biopic “Seraphine,” beat Meryl Streep in “Julie and Julia” by one vote for Best Actress. Once again, however, talk show host and comedian Mo’Nique added to a truly impressive number of wins with her work in “Precious,” taking yet another Best Supporting Actress prize.
You can see the complete list of winners at bottom of the Indiewire article I linked to above.
