Deakins + Villeneuve = Blade Runner Sequel Excitement

I was a massive fan of Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners, a staggering thriller with the ever-surprising Jake Gyllenhaal. One of its biggest assets was the mesmerizing cinematography of the great Roger Deakins.

Well, the Toronto International Film Festival is unspooling this week, and there's plenty of love for Villeneuve's latest film, Sicario, a drug cartel thriller starring Emily Blunt - also lensed by Deakins. Sicaro just showed up in the #1 spot on Entertainment Weekly's Must List: "If you enjoy stunning cinematography," is the opening line of their rave. It's also the director's third R-rated film in a row.

Why is this doubly exciting? Because these two cats are rolling up their sleeves to tackle the Blade Runner sequel, that's why. They are both clearly at the top of their games, and with the enthusiasm we've been hearing about the script, I think we're in for a visually stunning, hard-edged chapter in the long-awaited Replicant saga that's actually fit for adults.

Now I've just got to get around to watching Enemy...

The Desperate Hours: Nightcrawler

There once was the great tarnished golden age of the antihero – it was called the seventies.

Clockwork Orange, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, The French Connection, and of course, Taxi Driver. 

We don’t get them too often these days, but when we do, they tend to make an impact. I’d put Fight Club on that list, and Breaking Bad. 

I’d also put Nightcrawler. And if you’re misty for those edgy bygone days, thinking they don’t make ‘em like that anymore, you owe it to yourself to give Nightcrawler a spin.

 

Jake Gyllenhaal is Louis Bloom, a desperate loner living in his car, who’s created an elaborate internal architecture of himself as focused entrepreneur. He’s just not sure what of. 

Fate has him stumble into a late night accident being filmed by an independent news photographer – whose key skill seems to be a willingness to cross lines and keep filming, no matter what. Bloom, a natural at unblinking fixation, quickly realizes, “I can do that.” He’s found his calling. Grabbing a cheap video camera and police scanner, he starts trolling nocturnal Los Angeles looking for the near aftermath of accidents – or crimes – anything where the whiff of violence and blood still lingers in the air. Fresh video can be a commodity – the more shocking the better. It gets ratings, and Bloom is obsessively determined to shoehorn a place for himself in the video underbelly of local TV news. He’s figured out the formula: footage is king – and there’s nothing he won’t do to get it.

 

Gyllenhaal reaches a whole other level here, disappearing into Louis Bloom. It’s a hypnotic, disturbing performance. He’s in virtually every scene, and it’s insane that he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar. He’s like a driven David Cronenberg character and Gyllenhaal has created one of the most unsettling and single-minded film characters in American film since De Niro gave us Travis Bickle. 

 

Writer Dan Gilroy (The Bourne Legacy, Real Steel) takes the director’s chair for the first time here, and knocks the cover off the ball. Gilroy’s family breathes movies – his brother Dan directed Michael Clayton, and his father is Frank D. Gilroy, Pulitzer Prize winner for The Subject Was Roses. Gilroy’s wife, Rene Russo, co-stars in the film as the local news producer that Bloom zeroes-in on. Conspiring with editor (brother) John Gilroy and the great cinematographer Robert Elswit (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) Gilroy serves up one of the most visually arresting and heart-pumping films I’ve seen in a while. Made for less than $10 million, Nightcrawler looks astonishing and establishes an unforgettable atmosphere of wee-hours stillness, where things happen in a heartbeat that very few are up and moving to witness. 

In this age of increasing hypnotic devotion to our screens and news entities that know blood entrances, Nightcrawler has plenty to say about our culture of unblinking voyeurism, about crime, law enforcement, and the increasingly blurry line between observer and participant. In a culture that has its sociopathic moments, is the unhinged loner still an aberration? Nightcrawler is unmissable cinema. You’re going to need a long hot shower afterwards, but it’s a stupendous modern film, that wears its tarnish well.

It Follows peels out...then runs out of gas

It Follows has built up a considerable rep. I kept hearing it mentioned in the same breath as The Babadook and The Guest, both of which I loved. So I had to take the plunge.

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, It Follows is a twist on the long cinematic horror history of the bad things that happen after teenagers have sex. Jay (Maika Monroe, of The Guest, coincidentally) has a consensual sexual encounter, only to find herself stalked by an unknown supernatural force.

It's an interesting premise, and Mitchell does a phenomenal job of creating a really unique mood. The era is intangible - modern here and distinctly retro there. Old thrillers play on tube TVs like Laurie Strode's house in Halloween. Though what sets It Follows apart is the notion of possession as a metaphor for sexually transmitted disease. Jay and her friends are believable, naturalistic characters, and Mitchell does a great job of shooting in the bombed-out wasteland of Detroit, the abandoned neighborhoods creating a near documentary atmosphere of paranoia and dread. The performances are great and the opening scene is a doozy.

But as great as the elements are, the film didn't sustain for me, and really lost me in the third act. I was pretty well hooked, but the "rules" of Mitchell's horror conception weren't consistent and got sketchier as the finale grew more protracted. He's definitely got director's chops, and made a hell of a nice, fresh horror thriller for a paltry $2 million (and grossed around $15 mil). You can't help but champion his resourceful inventiveness and I'm definitely anxious to see what he does next.

I just wish It Follows had spent more time on the script - and on delivering a satisfying climax that felt worthy of its fresh premise.

A Big Day at D23!

Disney has the biggest toy box in town these days, and at this weekend's big D23 Expo in Anaheim, they opened the lid and gave us a glimpse into the future of all things Disney.

Yesterday we all learned a bit more about Finding Dory and Toy Story 4, plus a look at a myriad of other animated projects.

But today was all Star Wars. While we learned a bit more about Marvel's Civil War and Doctor Strange, there was a veritable avalanche of Star Wars revelations. 

Every Disney theme park will soon have its own "Star Wars Land," undoubtedly with a functioning cantina. 

We feasted our eyes on the new Drew Struzan poster art for The Force Awakens, as seen above.

We learned that Mads Mikkelsen (!) and Alan Tudyk will both be appearing in Rogue One.

And while news of the theme park presence was probably the biggest reveal  of the day, the most attention getting was certainly the announcement that Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) will be directing Star Wars: Episode IX, as previously rumored during last month's Comic-Con. "This is not a job or an assignment," said Trevorrow. "It is a seat at a campfire, surrounded by an extraordinary group of storytellers, filmmakers, artists and craftspeople. We’ve been charged with telling new stories for a younger generation because they deserve what we all had — a mythology to call their own. We will do this by channeling something George Lucas instilled in all of us: boundless creativity, pure invention and hope.”

D23 comes on the heels of a week that's seen lots of Force Awakens product leak well in advance of September 4th's Force Friday event, so we're really starting to get a sense of the feel and scope of this new era of Star Wars - and that scope is vast indeed.

HBO mulling a return to Deadwood!

This is one hell of a thing - HBO has confirmed that "preliminary talks" are underway to bring back the David Milch western series Deadwood as a movie for the cable network.

The series famously ended before wrapping up the stories of true-to-life characters Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen. News came out via the Twitter feed of actor Garret Dillahunt (who played character Francis Wolcott):

Incredibly exciting! Admittedly, it's pretty early and that's a huge cast to wrangle back together. But star Ian McShane is working on HBO's Game of Thrones now, and the network has plenty of old west sets for their reboot of Westworld... that's what Al Swearengen might have seen as "A bounteous passel of of signs and portents."

Stay tuned!

"Now We're Talkin'!" The Hateful Eight trailer in GLORIOUS 70mm!

If you love Cinema (capital C), Westerns, and the mayhem of Quentin Tarantino, this is a look at the fancy bow on the ultimate Christmas present. Widescreen wonder incarnate!

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