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The Rocchi Files -- Winter Comedy Preview!

Winter may be larded and filled with Oscar contenders, to be sure, but Hollywood -- knowing that a little desert makes the broccoli go down -- has made sure to fill the winter Oscar-qualifying and Oscar-waiting season with a few comedies to break up the drama and depression. There's plenty of funny stuff if you know where to look -- with, of course, the warning that you may not find the same things funny as Hollywood. ...

The Men Who Stare at Goats (Nov. 6)

Packed with an all-star cast - including George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey --this comedy would be absolutely unbelievable, if it weren't all true. Based on journalist John Ronson's book, The Men Who Stare at Goats tells the true tale of the U.S. Military's Cold-War era experiments in creating psychic soldiers who could spy and kill with the power of their minds alone. McGregor's a journalist who tracks down Clooney's ex-psychic, while Bridges and Spacey butt heads over how the psychic soldier program should continue -- or if it should at all. The Men Who Stare at Goats has been getting some play on the festival circuit -- I saw it in Toronto -- and while it's a bit uneven, there's a few solid laughs in it, especially when Clooney plays the silly psychic stuff .... perfectly ... straight.

Did You Hear About the Morgans? (Dec. 18)

Directed by Marc Lawrence -- who's previously struck gold with Hugh Grant in Two Week's Notice and Music and Lyrics -- Did You Hear About the Morgans? has a plot as old as the hills, the fish-out-of-water-but-in-trouble. The unhappily married Morgans (Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker) of New York are witnesses to a mob murder, and have to be put into witness relocation. Together. In Wyoming. Sure, it all sounds a little too much -- the odds that the Morgans will reunite seem approximately the same as that of the sunrise tomorrow -- but Grant and Parker are always reliable. More interestingly, the supporting cast is amazing -- Sam Elliott, Mary Steenburgen and Elizabeth Moss of Mad Men, for starters -- and as theaters get crowded with Oscar contenders, Did You Hear about the Morgans? might be the down-home vacation from deep, dark movies that audiences want.

The Rocchi Files -- Fall Drama Preview Part 2!

In the first part of our Fall Drama Preview, we looked at some of the films that'll be lighting up theater screens between now and Christmas -- and, in more than a few cases, starting up the Oscar race; in Part Two, we'll look at a few lesser-known films that will be hoping to get into the Oscar race and competing for your box-office dollar between now and 2010. …

The Road (Nov. 25)

Based on Cormac McCarthy's best-selling, Oprah-praised novel about a father (Viggo Mortensen) trying to keep his son (Jodi Smit-McPhee) alive after the collapse of civilization, The Road is a strong, serious take on what could have been more Mad Max-esque claptrap, but director John Hillcoat keeps the focus on the drama, not the world after the world. I saw The Road in Toronto, and found it very strong and raw, but it faces three big challenges. First, the movie has to compete with the book, and McCarthy's harsh, bleak vision has a bruised poetry to it that plays out straight, fine and true in a way no film can really match. The second problem is the heavy, tough-to-take subject matter; Academy voters barely live in the real world, and aren't exactly ready to contemplate the end of it as the stuff of serious drama.  And, finally, there's the chance that The Road may fall in-between sci-fi fans ready for an end-of-the-world film but put off by the serious handling and tough tone, and people looking for a tough, ambitious drama put off by the sci-fi sounding pitch. …

Brothers (Dec.4)

Based on director-writer Susanne Bier's original Oscar-nominated Danish film, Brothers follows Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire as two siblings; Maguire's a straight-arrow soldier and Gyllenhaal's a ex-con with a shady past -- but when Maguire goes off to war, Gyllenhaal steps into his brother's shows around the house … and finds himself drawn more and more to his brother's wife, Natalie Portman. … With direction by the great Jim Sheridan (In America), this may be a great adaptation of strong source material -- and be the film that gives Maguire and Gyllenhaal the acting showcases they both need while they're between big-budget action franchises.

The Rocchi Files -- Undead is the New Black!

Based on rave critical reviews (89% "Fresh" at Rotten Tomatoes) and big box office (making $25 million in its first weekend,) Zombieland had a great opening weekend -- and, while I'm sure there will be a flurry of development meetings in Hollywood this week with executives and sycophants scratching their heads to come up with pitches and plots since zombies are hot again -- but the fact is that zombies haven't ever gone away, ever since 1968's Night of the Living Dead. What explains the appeal of zombies for film makers and for fans?

1) They Work Cheap

Or, rather, they're cheap to make work -- unlike a vampire, werewolf or mummy, you don't need a lot of costuming or make-up to turn someone into a zombie. Just put someone in their usual outfit, add a little blood and dirt and voila; repeat that 10, 20, or 300 times and you've got a horror film for the cost of some fake blood and a pair of scissors. This kind of economy means that first-time and low-budget film-makers (who want to make every last penny scream as much as they want to make the audience do so) find zombies an irresistible source of scares for early efforts -- film makers Peter Jackson (The Lord of The Rings), Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) and David Cronenberg (The Fly, A History of Violence) all made zombie (or zombie-ish) films as their earliest efforts.

2) People are People

... and zombies are people, too -- which means that unlike a werewolf or vampire or mummy, we have a frame of reference for them. When a film has a supernatural creature, we get that element of escape, that cushion-space.  Ooh, that's scary, we think, but not something I have to worry about. But zombies look like people all around you-- your neighbor, your friends, your family -- and the thought of the people around you going crazy is far easier to get to, and far scarier when you wrap your head around it.

3) Living Death is a Funny Thing

... and the zombie film includes plenty of possibilities for dark humor. Take Zombieland, which uses the zombie apocalypse to establish how, even after the end of the world, people will still be bothering each other. Or Shaun of the Dead, which uses zombie-film clichés to gently mock British manners and society. Or Dawn of the Dead's re-make where the survivors, holed up in a mall surrounded by zombies, encourage a nearby sniper they're in radio contact with to find, and shoot, zombies who resemble celebrities in the middle of the mob.: "Tell him to get Burt Reynolds." Finally, zombies are funny because when they come, society breaks down -- and watching people linger with their old, civilized ways in the face of the apocalypse -- or break with their civilized ways -- is the epitome of the kind of contrast that makes for very funny, very dark jokes.

4) Zombies Don't Form Orderly Lines at the Grocery Store

.. and they don't go to the library, or hold the door for you, or bring the mail; when zombies come, it's the end of the world -- and who doesn't find that idea fascinating and thrilling?  Contemplating the end of the world isn't just a great way, psychologically, to look past your own problems; it's also a lot of fun, especially when it's done right on film. And it's the kind of fun with some thought behind it, if you're lucky, like a dessert with nutritional value; I still contend that the piece of cinema that best depicts what it felt like on the morning of 9/11 isn't United 93 or World Trade Center but, instead, the opening sequence of Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, where Sarah Polley goes to bed in a perfectly normal world and wakes up to find everything gone. Zombies are scary, and so is the world -- and if you do them right, you can use them to look look at everything from social behavior to survivor psychology to crisis management to anxiety about disease.

Of course, too many bad zombie movies are are going to spoil the wave, but right now, I'm enjoying the zombie renaissance -- we've been on a great run since 2002's 28 Days Later, and we have the film version of the Max Brooks best-seller World War Z to look forward to. Still, what do you get out of zombie films? And are they all fun and games for you, or do you think the best ones actually have something to say?

The Rocchi Files -- Fall Drama Preview Part 2!

In the first part of our Fall Drama Preview, we looked at some of the films that'll be lighting up theater screens between now and Christmas -- and, in more than a few cases, starting up the Oscar race; in Part Two, we'll look at a few lesser-known films that will be in the Oscar race and competing for your box-office dollar between now and 2010. …

The Road (Nov. 25)

Based on Cormac McCarthy's best-selling, Oprah-praised novel about a father (Viggo Mortensen) trying to keep his son (Jodi Smit-McPhee) alive after the collapse of civilization, The Road is a strong, serious take on what could have been more Mad Max-esque claptrap, but director John Hillcoat keeps the focus on the drama, not the world after the world. I saw The Road in Toronto, and found it very strong and raw, but it faces three big challenges. First, the movie has to compete with the book, and McCarthy's harsh, bleak vision has a bruised poetry to it that plays out straight, fine and true in a way no film can really match. The second problem is the heavy, tough-to-take subject matter; Academy voters barely live in the real world, and aren't exactly ready to contemplate the end of it as the stuff of serious drama.  And, finally, there's the chance that The Road may fall in-between sci-fi fans ready for an end-of-the-world film but put off by the serious handling and tough tone, and people looking for a tough, ambitious drama put off by the sci-fi sounding pitch. …

Brothers (Dec.4)

Based on director-writer Susanne Bier's original Oscar-nominated Danish film, Brothers follows Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire as two siblings; Maguire's a straight-arrow soldier and Gyllenhaal's a ex-con with a shady past -- but when Maguire goes off to war, Gyllenhaal steps into his brother's shows around the house … and finds himself drawn more and more to his brother's wife, Natalie Portman. … With direction by the great Jim Sheridan (In America), this may be a great adaptation of strong source material -- and be the film that gives Maguire and Gyllenhaal the acting showcases they both need while they're between big-budget action franchises.

The Rocchi Files -- Fall Drama Preview Part One!

If Oscar season has a starting gun -- and trust me, it does -- it comes in September with the Toronto International Film Festival and then turns into a marathon, not a sprint, for the next few months as the December 31st deadline for the Academy Awards draws closer. With that in mind, here's part one of a highly subjective list of the Fall's big dramas -- some of which I've seen, some of which I haven't -- as they jockey for Oscar glory, box-office dollars and your attention as fall turns to winter ...

An Education (October 16)

This British drama wasn't on anyone's radar -- until it finally played at Sundance, Telluride and other festivals and earned raves for Carey Mulligan's performance and crowned her the first dead-solid Best Actress Oscar Nomination lock of the year. Mulligan's that good, but it's also a great film, as Mulligan's '60s-era student gets unexpectedly tough lessons in life and love from her relationship with the older Peter Sarsgaard. The whole cast (including Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson) is excellent, and the script -- with High Fidelity and About a Boy author Nick Hornby adapting Lynn Barber's memoir -- is also impressively smart and soulful.

Amelia (October 23)

One of the biggest wild cards of Oscar season -- will audiences want to see two-time Best Actress Oscar-winner Hilary Swank as '30s aviatrix Amelia Earhart, in a drama directed by Monsoon Wedding director Mira Nair? The cast is ridiculous -- including Swank, Ewan McGregor, Richard Gere, and more -- but will the fact we kinda know how the story ends keep audiences away, or draw them in? The script is by Ron Bass -- who also gave us Stepmom and My Best Friend's Wedding -- and Anna Hamilton Phelan of Mask and Gorillas in the Mist, so the film may very well wind up having a mix of history and drama audience respond to -- if they make it to the theaters; at the same time, Amelia has that broccoli-for-dinner, so-good-it's-good-for-you feel to it already, like it's a film you'd watch for extra credit when your 12th grade history teacher had a hangover and wanted to take it easy in class that day. ...

Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire (Nov. 6)

With Oprah's blessing, Tyler Perry's backing and the unprecedented honor of earning the Audience Awards at both the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals (and also earning raves at Cannes, where I reviewed it), this rough and raw urban drama about a abused teen (Gabourey Sidibe) trying to turn her life around through faith, hope and charity looks poised to be a big player come this Oscar season -- and also has a near-certain guarantee of a best Supporting Actress nomination for comedian-turned-actress Mo'nique as Precious' monster-mother, whose nightmarish cruelty culminates in a searing scene of confession and atonement. It remains to be seen if audiences will eagerly seek out a story that, while it comes around to a heartfelt and earned happy (or happier, at least) ending, involves some very tough stuff involving abuse, poverty and hopelessness ...
 

Up in the Air (Dec. 25)

Another big winner after bowing at Telluride and Toronto (see my Toronto review here), Up in the Air's tale of a corporate downsizing gunslinger (George Clooney) who suddenly has to fight to preserve his own job -- and his soul -- has been earning raves for a nicely-calibrated mix of deft comedy and, yes, real drama. Look for director Jason Reitman to get a nod for Best Director (his second after the breakthrough success of Juno), but if there's any justice, we'll see Clooney and Vera Farmiga (playing a fellow road-warrior who begins a hotels-and-airports romance with Clooney's traveling man) get Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress nods as well. Combine the excellent acting with a great story that makes honest, but never easy, points about our economic crisis and Up in the Air seems to be floating above the pack in the Oscar race already. ...

Nine (Nov. 25)

If any film looks like an Oscar contender at first blush this year, it's Nine -- the big-screen version of a musical that is, itself, an adaptation of a movie. (Confused yet?) Based on Fellini's classic 8 1/2, 9 follows a director (Daniel Day-Lewis) dealing with life, love and art - and the 9 women who have shaped him as lovers, friends and more. Daniel Day-Lewis alone makes this worth watching, but the cast gets even more impressive when you look at the leading ladies playing his lovers and family -- including Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Sophia Loren, Kate Hudson and Penelope Cruz. (Normally, the complaint is that there aren't enough good roles for female actresses in Hollywood; expect the joke this year to be that there are good roles for actresses in 20009, but they're all in one film. ...) Directed by Rob Marshall of Chicago, it remains to be seen if Nine will earn a Chicago-style reception at the Oscars ... or a Dreamgirls-style snub. ...

(Which of these are you most looking forward to? And come back next week for the Fall Preview Part 2, with The Road, Brothers, and other Oscar contenders. ... )

The Rocchi Files: Spider-Mouse (or, Everything You Wanted to Know About the Disney-Marvel Merger but Were Afraid to Ask)

It was one of those rare business deals that became front-page news because it reached all the way from corporate boardrooms into people's dreams and memories: On Monday, it was announced that the Walt Disney Corporation -- owners of ABC and the Muppets, ESPN and Mickey Mouse, Pixar and Hannah Montana -- had purchased Marvel Comics for a staggering four billion dollars. It came as a shock -- reputed, reliable and industry-standard comics blogger Heidi McDonald noted that on Monday, her morning began with her fiancé literally shaking her awake to tell her the news. It was unexpected, but not unprecedented; after all, Time Warner had bought the DC comic-book line, home to Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and Green Lantern in 1969 -- but this was a much bigger deal, for a lot more money. Soon, the internet was humming with simple, silly sight gags -- Donald Duck with Wolverine's claws, Spider-Man's distinctive red-and-blue webbing capped with mouse ears. But those pictures are worth far less than a thousand words; what does this deal really mean, and when will we see the ramifications of it play out on movie screens and your home theater?

The answers aren't as easy as you think. Take, for example, the fact that the Disney deal doesn't include the films Marvel Studios (the movie-making arm of Marvel Comics) has with Paramount Pictures. Paramount is contractually entitled to distribute, and share in the profits, of five more Marvel films -- Iron Man 2 and 3, Thor, Captain America and the all-star superhero lineup flick The Avengers. Of these, Iron Man 2 just finished principal photography; Thor (a fantasy fable about an ordinary man who can become the vessel for the Norse Thunder god) has director Kenneth Branagh attached. And Captain America (the shield-wielding champion of the red, white and blue) has a director attached but no cast. Will Paramount want to distribute movies that, as of Monday, feed into a rival's profit line?

The Rocchi Files -- Fall Family Film Preview, Part 2

In the first part of our Fall Family Film Preview, we looked at upcoming family titles from Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs to Fame, from Astro Boy to Where the Wild Things Are; in this second installment, we'll be taking a look at upcoming space-adventures and Christmas classics, talking animals and a beloved kid's favorite that's making the leap to the third dimension. Which will be worth your time and money and entertain your kids and which may not be worth the trip to the multiplex?

Toy Story and Toy Story 2 3D -- Oct. 2

The groundbreaking film that launched Pixar and its sequel have been re-vamped and plumped up for 3D, and, frankly, I'm less interested in whatever mathe-magic Pixar's programmers have done to add depth to the height and width of the two films than I am in any chance to see those two films on the big screen. Expect an air of celebration at screenings, which Disney will neatly funnel into anticipation for the upcoming Toy Story 3 -- and, frankly, if number 3 is as good as number 2 (And, really, isn't Toy Story 2 a little better than Toy Story? It kind of is. ...), I'll be first in line.

The Rocchi Files -- Fall Family Film Preview, Part 1

As August winds down and we head toward Labor Day, it seems like a good time to pick and choose from the next few months of movies to figure out what's really worth your time and money on the big screen, or at the very least talk about the buzz and the business decisions behind the fall films of 2009. We'll look at the upcoming slate of end-of-year blockbusters and possible prestige picks at a future date, but this time around? Let's begin a two-part look at the family films coming to a theater near you this fall and see what looks like it may pop and what looks like it may flop. ...

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs -- Sept. 18

Based on a well-loved kid's book about a town where food falls from the sky, I can't say if kids are looking forward to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs or not-- but I can say that I am, thanks to a voice cast that reads like an all-star comedy dream team. Bill Hader, of Saturday Night Live, is the glad scientist who begins the deluge of dinner; Anna Faris of The House Bunny is playing opposite Hader trying to help him stop the flood of food that's plummeting from the sky in 3D. Other cast members include Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead II), Andy Samberg (Hot Rod) and Bobb'e J. Thompson (Role Models) -- plus James Caan (The Godfather) and Mr. T (Who, let's be honest, needs no clarifying credit to spark your memory because he's freaking Mr. T.) Add in direction from Phil Lord and Chris Miller -- who gave us the too-good-to-survive freaky 'toon Clone High -- and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs looks interesting, with a (high) chance of good.

Fame -- Sept. 25

With the rampant success of the High School Musical franchise, plus the popularity of dance flicks in recent years, filming a re-make of this '80s classic about New York's Academy for the Performing Arts, where the musical youth also dance, must have seemed like a no-brainer. The flashy trailers are getting kid audiences enthused, although the casting of the faculty -- including Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth, plus Charles S. Dutton, Megan Mullally and, yes, Debbie Allen returning to the fold as the school's principal -- has a weird, accident-waiting-to-happen, can't-look-away quality to it. Add in the intoxicating fumes of '80s nostalgia, and this re-make might pull in the grown-ups who were kids when Coco and his crew first shut down Manhattan's streets with impromptu dance numbers as well as their offspring. ...

Where the Wild Things Are -- Oct. 16

I know, I know -- between my reaction to the footage shown at Comic Con and Erika's thoughts about the trailer, we've been talking a lot about Spike Jonze's film version of the beloved Maurice Sendak kid's book a lot. At the same time, if I had to name the films -- not kid's films, but films period -- I'm most excited about seeing in the latter half of 2009, this would be near the top of the list. After rumors of a troubled production, Warner Brothers seems to be pulling out all the stops with a very crafty promotional campaign (including an excerpt of screenwriter Dave Eggers' novelization of the classic running in the latest edition of The New Yorker and promotional footage of Jonez and Sendak talking about the film in a mutual appreciation society) to sell Where the Wild Things Are without killing the mystery, and so far it seems to be working.

Astro Boy -- Oct. 23

I have nothing against nuclear-powered boy robots who defend the planet with their rocket-powered super-abilities, but even with the great-looking trailer and the sterling voice cast (including Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell and Nicolas Cage) for this re-launch of the '60s cartoon character, I have to wonder who, exactly was clamoring for Astro Boy (voiced by Highmore) to make his way to the big screen? The original Astro Boy series ran here in the States between 1963 and 1965 and then for five more years in syndication; that means anyone who was, say, 8 when Astro Boy hit the airwaves is 44 now; that's a pretty long time lapse between original and re-vamp. Still, with Highmore and Bell and Cage (as well as Samuel L. Jackson and the sneering, reptilian Bill NIghy, who seems to be having a career renaissance playing in kid's movies between this, G-Force and his being cast in the two-part final installment in the Harry Potter series), it remains to be seen if that kind of big-name cast can translate into good sci-fi adventure storytelling to a degree that makes up for Astro Boy's long absence from the pop-culture landscape.

We'll run with Part Two of our Fall Family Film Preview next week, including looks at Planet 51, A Christmas Carol and more -- but what are your thoughts on the four films above? Do they look like they'd catch you and your family's attention, or will they get lost in the shuffle in Hollywood's busiest time of year?

The Rocchi Files: Do the Twist (Ending)

Two recent theatrical releases make it a great time to talk about twist endings -- of course, I kind of feel compelled to not mention which releases, as that might actually ruin the fact they have twists. And thus, we enter that weird place where film journalism becomes more and more like theoretical particle physics -- if you know there's a twist, does that affect how you watch the film, like the observed particles of the Heisenberg principle? Of course, considering that one of the two recent twist films -- A Perfect Getaway (see Locke's review here) -- mentions that you won't believe its twist in its ads, I think I'm clear on that one, and the other recent twist film -- Orphan (see my review here) -- is pretty much abandoned at the box office, I feel okay mentioning that they even have twists.

And yet, I've been burned before; decades after Citizen Kane, there's still always someone who will react in shock and horror if you dare talk about the exact meaning of "Rosebud" even though, really, at this point, that information should be as much of a shocker as the answer to the question of who exactly won World War II. Maybe you like to get to the movies at your own pace, and I can respect that; maybe you really like to see movies as a blank slate, and I respect that, too. (There are films where I won't even watch the trailer for fear some punk in marketing gives away the whole film in the name of selling you a ticket.) So, if you want to watch Orphan and A Perfect Getaway unsullied by too much prior knowledge, look away! Click away now! And if you click to go farther, you were warned!

The Rocchi Files: Why Bother?

I've spent a lot of this week running around trying to track down a "yes" or a "no" answer from the PR department of a major motion picture studio to determine if their upcoming high-budget, high-concept, action film is going to screen for critics. They aren't sure yet; no one would dare say it, but you can feel them balancing their desire to not look like they're hiding the thing versus the potential opening-week word-of-mouth box office damage that could be done by uniformly bad reviews.

Meanwhile, a friend and fellow critic noted that she hasn't seen anything she's really loved lately, and that worries her, considering that she makes her living writing about movies with insight and enthusiasm. Meanwhile, talking guinea pigs are at the top of the box office (and I was told G-Force was "not screening for online press,") and this week's family film contender, Aliens in the Attic, didn't screen for press either. And that made me wonder -- do you know, or care, about any of this stuff? Or is it just inside baseball? And if you don't know or care about it, then what could I say to make it matter?

I guess what I'd say to try and make it matter is this: