Yesterday marked the official opening of the massive Tim Burton exhibit at The MoMA, and if early reviews are any indication, it’s not to be missed. Though Burton is known primarily as a Hollywood director, don’t expect to see Batman’s cape and cowl or Edward’s scissorhands encased in any glass here. Instead, this is a collection of older drawings and sketches of both semi and fully realized characters culled straight from the inner recesses of Burton’s madcap mind. Organized in chronological order, the images date back to his lonely childhood in Burbank, and extend well into his career as one of the most successful filmmakers of our generation. And if you can’t make it to New York right away fear not, the retrospective is open until April 26th, 2010. In the meantime, watch Burton talk to the MoMA about the ideas behind his work below.
Yesterday we were fortunate enough to attend the Canadian premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s highly anticipated WWII romp Inglorious Basterds. Security was intense–all cellphones with camera capabilities were checked upon entrance–and metal detectors greeted us at the door. Clearly, this wasn’t just another screening. Buzz about Tarantino’s presence was fierce, and after learning that he had done Canadian press earlier that afternoon coupled with a security guard’s mutterings–”the director really wants to get started by 7 PM”–our anticipation had reached a fever pitch. Thirty minutes after the scheduled start time, Canada AM’s resident film geek Richard Crouse took hold of a mic and stood before a packed-to-the-brim theatre, to introduce a very special guest. “I remember when I first saw Pulp Fiction….”
Tarantino was greeted with a no-brainer standing ovation, and was joined by fellow director Eli Roth–who plays basterd Donny Donowitz in the film–two giants of modern cinema standing before an adoring audience. Clearly these men have little to no self-esteem issues. After the obligatory bigging up of Toronto (Eli Roth called it his “home”), Tarantino opted out of the requisite “bonne cinema” and instead belted out “ARE YOU READY TO WATCH SOME NAZIS GET THEIR ASSES KICKED?” And with that, the lights dimmed…
It’s easy to describe Inglorious Basterds as a film about Brad Pitt’s Aldo Raine and his team of rough-and-tumble Nazi killers (who also happen to be Jews), as they plow and pillage their way through occupied France, but it’s so much more than that. It’s an homage to the cinema of the 1940s, to noir films, and it’s classic QT. Long, tense scenes of surgical dialogue are punctuated with explosive, whip-quick instances of extreme violence, orchestrated by a director who has checked into his comfort zone, and shows no signs of vacating anytime soon. Giving major plot points away would spoil all the fun, but let’s just say Tarantino takes a few liberties with historical facts, especially in the film’s blazing final act. I’ve already said too much. Inglorious Basterds opens wide on August 21st, and in case you’ve been hiding out under a floor board (too much?) for the last year, check out the trailer below.
Having spent the majority of our lives in urban centres, our vision of small town America is more in line with Hollywood’s–a white pickect fence-lined haven for wholesome families, and hard workers to raise children and commit adultery. In Todd Field’s wrenching 2001 drama In The Bedroom, an illicit relationship in a small New England town leads to murder. In Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Showa group of unfulfilled, frustrated townspeople hookup simply to pass the time. Then there’s the opposite end of the spectrum. It took Reese Witherspoon’s New York Socialite a return to her small town roots to become a better person in Sweet Home Alabama. So which is it? Is middle America replete with sexually frustrated misanthropes or congenial do-gooders whose perfectly aligned moral compasses are the key to our salvation?
Why don’t we let Bill and Turner Ross chime in, whose fly-on-the-wall documentary 45365 examines the many intricacies of Sidney, a small town in Ohio, and does so free of judgment. A Grand Jury Award winner at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, 45365 is available for streaming on various sites and should eventually find its way to a theatre near you. That is, if you live in a big city of course.
Check out the mesmerizing trailer for 45365 below.
Rory Culkin is that rare breed of young actor more concerned with the quality of his work, than with the fame that proceeds it. In fact, said fame has had an averse effect on the brooding thespian, acting as a drawback more than a selling point. And yet, a film star he is, and fame is just something he’s going to have to deal with. In the meantime, Culkin has established himself as the protoype for sensitive, melancholic, sharper-than-you adolescents growing up around things that are falling apart. Having appeared in a handful of artful and accessible classics like You Can Count On Me and Igby Goes Down, Culkin is carefully carving out a filmography that is the envy of High School Musical-ers everywhere.
Culkin can next be seen in the festival circuit smash Lymelife, where he plays the film’s dopey moral center who is forced to come to terms with a family that may not be everything he once thought it was. Rory Culkin will be featured in the upcoming Spring issue of Corduroy, where he talks candidly about his career, but in the meantime, check out the newly released trailer for Lymelife below.
It takes a certain childlike sensibility to appreciate the work of indie renaissance woman, Miranda July. The writer/director/star of the modern cult classic Me, You and Everyone We Knowand author of the collection of short stories No One Belongs Here More Than You is odd to be sure, but also undeniably charming. Although her aesthetic can be deemed “artsy”, it’s also quite disarming in its overt playfulness. Here, the artistic instigator takes us on an indiosyncratic journey through a button factory–sort of.
