Never Mind Pop Film

Nostalgia hurts, so it came as a surprise that so many films this year were aimed at people opening old wounds and experiencing the joys of childhood again. Hugo mystified many this year and The Artist recreated a whimsical feeling in moviegoers that had gone unfelt since the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close made us wish for the innocence of a child before the fateful morning of September 11th. Midnight in Paris reminded us that nostalgia of an era we never lived in is just sentimentality.
But it wasn't just nostalgia for another time, it was for any semblance of normality. A return to a time when raising a family wasn't so damn hard. When your rivals couldn't simply outspend you. When your friend getting married didn't mean that she had to move away. When cinema could help audiences forget the troubles of the world. Few films have touched upon wish fulfillment in bulk the way that this year has. Even few have done so as we…

Being the most anticipated film of the year comes lots of news stories. In order to avoid reader fatigue combing the posts seemed like a simpler idea. Why take up three stories what you can do with one?

The above image comes from the prologue that came out in December.

Tom Hardy on Bane and his resistance to go to a dark place to play him:

Hardy described the character as "brutal" and "heavy-handed", but "I didn't get into a dark place at all. A lot of dark characters are easy to have distance from, it's something I feel comfortable with, I suppose."
Christian Bale on his mindframe playing Bruce Wayne/Batman:

For me he is an anarchist and a free spirit. He knows that there are parallels between him and his enemies because life is never stable – you always have to fight for it. Keeping in mind that it may never be boring and that nobody is obliging you to behave like a superhero and to always have your muscles flexed and bulging.
(Courtesy…

Thanks to ArcLight for providing us with an insightful look at how and why Gary Oldman took on the character of George Smiley in his Academy Award nominated performance in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

With any innovative idea there are vultures surrounding them, these vultures are both advocates and detractors just waiting to pick apart. Success has many fathers, but failure has just one. The "talking cure" that Dr. Freud (Viggo Mortensen) has implemented could either bring psychoanalysis to the mainstream or destroy the reputations of all doctors willing to treat their patients with it.
Dr. Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender, in yet another solid performance) likes to fancy himself a practitioner of the talking cure, but a new patient in the form of Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) could reveal him to be a student.

Sabina's psychosis is not a common one: she is excited by humiliation. Underneath all of this dilapidating fear, Jung sees a kindred spirit, a woman with insights of her own. He can find a way to cure her of this "disease", but in doing so he must tread lightly. His resolve is being corrupted by Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel), a man who represses noth…

It’s here! It’s finally here!

After 23 years of rejection, cinematic torture, and pure lack of interest from every conceivable motion picture studio, George Lucas’ retelling of the Tuskegee Airmen’s battle against racism and the Germans during WW II, has at last been released and is now playing at a theater near you.
The question is: is it any good?
Well, in a word … no. In a sentence … Red Tails takes a passionate and serious subject matter, glamorizes it, and then morphs the story into a unconvincing, incoherent, action frenzied mess.
Director Anthony Hemingway’s directorial debut is the type of film you want to embrace, though. It’s a feel good blockbuster that doesn’t degrade society or dismantle morals, but rather cultivates them. How unfortunate that substance is too often substituted with hyper kinetic (Lucas driven) CGI.
We pick up the story in Italy, 1944. It’s the height of WW II and a new program entitled The Tuskegee Airmen has been set in motion. Despite malicious racists …

Given that Shame has played in maybe 40 theatres across the entire world, the only real look at Steve McQueen's divisive film has been at posters and trailers. Fortunately, these posters have been great. And here is the latest one coming to you all the way from Hungary.

It should be no surprise that The Artist and Hugo lead all films with eleven and ten nominations respectively.  Nice surprises in Bichir and Oldman's Best Acting nods as well as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's technical nods and Mara for Best Actress. I would have liked to have seen one of the Michaels (Fassbender in Shame or Shannon in Take Shelter) nominated though.

Best Picture War Horse
The Artist
Moneyball
The Descendants
The Tree of Life
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Hugo
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Best Actress Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Viola Davis, The Help
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn Best Actor Demian Bichir, A Better Life
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball Supporting Actress Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help Supporting Ac…