Ladies and gentlemen, meet Dane DeHaan. According to multiple sources, such as Hollywood Reporter and EW.com, he’s your new Harry Osborn for this iteration of the Amazing Spider-Man series. He takes over the role that was originated by James Franco in the original Spider-Man Trilogy. He also will probably not sabotage the Academy Awards and star on a soap opera but I’m only venturing a guess at this point.
Back to DeHaan, you might remember him from that unrated Josh Trank pic Chronicle. He played Andrew Detmer, the social outcast turned super emo kid with powers. He turned in a terrific performance in showing his issues and his calm, if not frightening nature as he developed a superiority over others with his powers. He also was in Lawless with Tom Hardy and Shia LeBeouf, which he also did a great job in. Looking even further, you might recognize him from In Treatment and True Blood. He apparently was also ‘Second White Soldier’ in Lincoln so this is definitely the next step up from that.
He appears to be the last of the major castings for the new Spider-Man sequel, with Jamie Foxx slotted in as Electro, Shailene Woodley as Mary Jane and Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone returning from the previous movie. Obviously we all should know that Harry Osborn becomes the heir apparent to his father’s villain alter ego, The Green Goblin, but we have yet to see Norman Osborn so perhaps we might see him sooner than we might think. I think DeHaan will be a good addition to the cast as he definitely comes off as a terrific actor in his previous roles and it will be interesting to see how they tackle the Harry Osborn character. This seems to be running along the same lines as the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series so maybe we’ll see…Hobgoblin? I don’t know but I’m excited with this casting news. More so than the Jamie Foxx casting because Booty Call was just on television the other day and…just wow.
In this disturbing but intriguing story, writer/director Craig Zobel tells the true story of a fast food clerk who is the subject of a vicious and tragic prank call that leaves no victim unchanged. I find this trailer fascinating because, according to the filmmaker and the people who have been following the film closely, the events depicted in the movie were all true to life. This is a movie that illustrates the horrors of people who were just “following orders”.
The controversy surrounding this movie has been pretty huge, with many audience members claiming that there’s no way the stuff in this movie really happened. But, you know what they say, the truth is stranger than fiction.
Stars: Ann Dowd, Pat Healy, Dreama Walker, Bill Camp, and Philip Ettinger.
Release Date: August 17th, 2012
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The story of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper’s son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean. Allow me to opine for just a moment. I’ve never liked Ang Lee as a director. I thought Taking Woodstock was great, but Hulk is awful and Brokeback Mountain is overrated. This movie….this frigging movie. Why? Just…why? That is all.
Stars: Suraj Sharma, Tabu, Irrfan Khan, and Tobey Maguire (as Yann Martel, the author of the novel that served as the inspiration for this film…yeah, not sure how that’s going to work)
Release Date: November 21st, 2012
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Jack and Diane. Jack and Diane. Jack. Diane. Diane and Jack. Jack……and Diane. I’ll be honest I don’t even know what the hell this movie is about. The trailer, which stars Juno Temple (with hair as frizzy as ever), making out with a girl named Jack and then Jack is not really a girl she’s this thing and there was this awful trailer music and Kylie Minogue is in it and it just looks awful. But I mean…the possibility of Juno Temple getting naked and having hot lesbian sex and then getting eaten by her lover does have an appealing ring to it. Oh yeah, and Dane DeHaan (who’s awesome) and Leo Fitzpatrick (who’s even more awesome) are both in it. If there’s one way to explain it, it’s like Beastly meets Twilight meets Skinemax – with more bloody entrails.
Stars: Juno Temple, Riley Keough, Dane DeHaan, Leo Fitzpatrick, Haviland Morris, and yes…..Kylie Minogue
Release Date: November 2nd, 2012
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In this winner, we’ve got Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, and Lizzy Caplan playing Bridesmaids to their old friend, Becky, played by Rebel Wilson. On the night before her wedding to Dale (Hayes MacArthur), the three girls rip the dress apart and end up spending the rest of the night trying to fix it. After watching this trailer, I remember liking this movie a lot more when it was called Bridesmaids. Rebel Wilson, who can’t seem to score a leading role, is billed as a supporting character IN A MOVIE ABOUT HER! And Adam Scott’s involvement in this movie, while slightly reassuring, is looking like another Our Idiot Brother. He’ll probably have, like, two scenes which is unfortunate because re-teaming him and Lizzy Caplan after “Party Down” would’ve made a great movie on its own.
Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan, Adam Scott, James Marsden, Rebel Wilson, and Hayes MacArthur.
Release Date: September 6th, 2012
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V/H/S is a POV, found footage horror film from the perspective of America’s top genre filmmakers. In ‘V/H/S’, a group of misfits are hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house in the countryside and acquire a rare tape. Upon searching the house, the guys are confronted with a dead body, a hub of old televisions and an endless supply of cryptic footage, each video stranger and more inexplicable than the last. I can’t even explain the sheer terror I felt while watching this preview. Directed as a series of shorts by ten of horror’s most prominent filmmakers, V/H/S looks and feels…revolutionary. Let’s hope the film lives up to it’s awesome preview.
Release Date: August 31st OnDemand, October 5th in Theaters
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The trailer for this movie defines “on the fence”. Director Paul Schrader (who is responsible for writing Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, American Gigolo, but also directing Dominion: A Prequel to The Exorcist so it can really go either way), and writer by Bret Easton Ellis, one of the most important and imaginative writers of all time, are making a movie about a group of 20-somethings in LA that stars….Lindsay Lohan and some guy named (I shit you not) James Deen who is (again, no shit being shitted) a porn star. I love this trailer because it sets up the location very well and gives literally nothing away. Bret Easton Ellis understands the mind of a troubled 20-something, and I feel like this film will assess that accurately. Paul Schrader is awesome and this could be a great comeback for him. I’m definitely excited for this movie but I’m also very skeptical. The reason there’s no footage of the actual film in the trailer is because the teaser was released just as production started. There’s no release date, no set photos, no nothing. Just some stock footage of LA. Go figure.
After vomiting in her car, Katie (Ari Graynor) is forced to room with Lauren (Lauren Miller) to pay for a fabulous Gramercy Park apartment, and in order to make ends meet, the unlikely pair start a phone sex line together. Shenanigans undoubtedly occur in this hilarious trailer for what could be this year’s only truly unisex comedy. Cameos by Seth Rogen ensure some comedy for the guys but with a crew compiled mostly of women (the film was written but not directed by women), the raunchy subject matter seems to be a front for what is essentially a comedy aimed at the ladies.
The genre of superhero movies is one of my favorites, as is the sub-genre known as the “found footage” genre, so I think you can estimate my level of excitement when I saw the brilliantly edited trailer for the new film, Chronicle. Now, there’s quite a bit of hate for the found footage genre, and I can definitely see why. The shaky camera, the sometimes phony looking thrills, and the overall bad reputation the genre has had since its inception all sway the public opinion far enough so that found footage films border on hated.
Both 2010 and 2011 brought us seventeen found footage films each year, and in 2012, the number is up to about ten. I think I can fairly assume that found footage is here to stay, at least for a couple more years. The Paranormal Activity films have grossed an insane amount of money with minuscule budgets, and other horror films like the Spanish found footage film REC, as well as films like Cannibal Holocaust, Man Bites Dog, The Blair Witch Project, August Underground, and the original Paranormal Activity are considered to be modern horror classics. On a side note, my favorite found footage movie is definitely Trash Humpers, and I definitely recommend that to any film buffs who haven’t already seen it.
Getting back on track (I could talk about found footage for days), 2012 probably has the biggest variety of found footage films. Chronicle is a superhero movie, Paranormal Activity 4 is a horror movie, Area 51, Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli’s follow up film, is a sci fi flick, and Project X, is the first of its kind as a comedy found footage flick. Now, you nitpicky bastards out there are going to cite The Virginity Hit, right? I honestly don’t think that counts, as there are some regular steady cam shots in the film, which is essentially breaking form. With that criteria in mind you could call American Beauty a found footage film.
Chronicle follows three teenagers who probably wouldn’t have become so close if not for a hole in the ground. Emotionally damaged teenager, Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan) decides to purchase a camera to record everything in his life, but mostly the drunkenly violent tendencies of his alcoholic father. After sustaining an injury while working as a fireman, Richard Detmer (Michael Kelly), spends his time at home taking care of Andrew’s sickly mother, Karen (Bo Petersen).
Andrew’s cousin, Matt Garetty (Alex Russell) convinces Andrew to go to a rave one day. Andrew insists that he bring his camera, and begins to film the party. There, he meets Casey Letter (Ashley Hinshaw), one of his classmates who is also filming the party for her blog. The two meet briefly, but it’s obvious that Matt is the one interested in her, not Andrew. He walks away and begins filming more, and after a physical altercation with a man who thinks Andrew is filming his girlfriend, he resigns to the parking lot, accepting the fact that he really just can’t make any friends. Suddenly, Steve Montgomery (Michael B. Jordan), who is front runner for class president, approaches Andrew and asks him to come film something that he and Matt found.
Now I don’t want to spoil what the object in the ditch is, because it’s pretty freaking cool. What I can say, though, is that the boys develop superpowers, and begin to flex what they theorize is a mental muscle. In short, it’s telekinesis, and it makes them virtually indestructible. But instead of using the powers for the good of mankind, they just decide to do cool and often stupid things with them, but as they get stronger, complications in their relationship arise, causing Andrew to inherit rage that is sometimes beyond his control.
Chronicle is equal parts origin flick, accurate high school comedy, and harrowing family drama. With an excellent script and equally impressive direction by first time filmmakers Max Landis and Josh Trank, Chronicle manages to be a low budget superhero movie that actually works, and goddamn does it work well. Everything from the performances to the pitch perfect dialogue rings absolutely true despite an odd and rather rehashed plot line. The depiction of a modern high school is near perfect, capturing both the angst and a glimpse of popularity all through the eyes of a troubled teen.
Make no mistake of Chronicle‘s motives, because the film isn’t here to tell a story of good and evil. It’s here to tell a story of good intentions through a troubled mind, and the abuse of power in a time of desperation, as well as the importance of family in a difficult and confusing situation. The central performance by Dane DeHaan is absolutely fantastic. Only 24 years old, you may have seen DeHaan on the HBO series In Treatment, but if you haven’t, you’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the future. With four 2012 movies on his roster, including my most anticipated film of the year, Wettest Country, DeHaan is going to be getting both A-list billing and treatment in literally no time.
In a world of YouTubers, Microbloggers, iPod, iPad, iPhone, video cameras, camera phones, and even basic things like surveillance cameras are all integral parts of today’s society. We feel an inherent need to document everything, and I think that Chronicle accurately portrays that. It never breaks form, but instead uses various forms of handheld cameras to get its point across, and with a surprising amount of finesse, too. Director Josh Trank could have just switched to regular film and filmed the climactic action sequences that way, but he decided to not take the easy way out and stick with the method he began the film with, and it really does actually pay off.
On a budget of only $15 million dollars, Chronicle does more with the little it’s given than most other similar movies, ($200 million for Green Lantern?! What is that?!), and the CGI is near perfect in my opinion. Walking in I expected an entertaining teen superhero flick but I walked out realizing that I’d just viewed not just a movie, but a film that has meaning and isn’t meant to just be. I recommend Chronicle to anyone who really just likes movies. It’s got the wide spread appeal of a blockbuster, with the mind of an indie flick, a perfect marriage if you ask me.
This February director Josh Trank releases his first feature film, and it looks pretty damn sweet. Chronicle tells the story of 3 friends who acquire super powers, and then follows as they learn how to use, and eventually abuse them. As you can see in the trailer, things get out of hand…
The most recognizable actor in the movie is easily Michael B. Jordan who you may recognize from Friday Night Lights or Parenthood, but the movie also features character actor Michael Kelly and up-and-comer Ashley Hinshaw. Considering how good the effects looks, that’s not bad on budget of less than 10 million dollars.
To me this looks sort of like the early episodes of Heroes, but better. The only thing that I’m unsure of is the whole ‘Blair Witch’ camera work which can get old quick when in the theater. But I guess we’ll find out February 3rd.
Grizzly Bomb 