Here's a big list of 55 movies coming in 2008. Some pretty good ones too.
I'm interested in films by Charlie Kaufman, The Wachowski Brothers, Doug Liman, Steven Speilberg, John Avnet working with De Niro and Pacino, a Chuck Palahniuk book - "Choke", Peter Jackson, Bryan Singer, Christopher Nolan, Tom Twyker, Spike Jonze , A new Bond, Clint Eastwood, David Fincher. There are also many good films by directors that don't have these directors track record and a few I just left off 'cause this list is getting too long. Check out 2008 best films: Link
The artist and director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat) has brought a remarkable film to the screen. It is in limited release. Don't miss it when it arrives in your city.
The Diving Belle and the Butterfly tells the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby who becomes paralyzed after a stroke and is only able to move his right eye. His remarkable adaption to his condition pushes the human spitit to new heights of resiliency. The film through teriffic camera work goes through Jean-Dominique Bauby's imagination and his past.
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is getting great reviews and award nominations. The film has a very good soundtrack.
"The nominations for the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards, the precursor to the Oscars, have been announced for 2008. This year's selection has some promising choices, including plentiful mentions of No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton, Juno, Charlie Wilson's War, and even Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. While the Golden Globes aren't exactly what we'll later see at the Oscars, they're a great set of awards that honor those who are sometimes forgotten by the Academy. The Globes will air live on NBC at 8PM (EST) on Sunday, January 13, 2008 from The Beverly Hilton in LA. Without further ado, you can catch the full list of nominees below." Link
Atonement with Keira Knightley and James McAovy leads the nominations with seven.
Atonement Trailer
One of my favorite films "Gone, Baby, Gone" only recieved one nomination - Amy Ryan for Best Supporting Actress. Gone, Baby, Gone deserves more recognition. It had terrific direction (Ben Affleck), acting (Casey Affleck, Ed Harris) and the story raised moral questions each filmgoer could dig into like a bowl of Boston Clam Chowder.
Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" starring Daniel Day Lewis looks like an intense film experience. Daniel often provides that intensity. I loved Paul's" Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia" so I'm looking forward to "There Will Be Blood's" release December 26.
The film director Sidney Lumet 83, looks like he has a terrific new film,"Before The Devil Knows You're Dead." A drama, one can bite into, appreciate and absorb, starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei and Albert Finney.
Sidney Lumet is one of America's great filmmakers - Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict, Network, 12 Angry Men, Prince of the City are some of Sidney's heavy hitters.
Before the Devil Knows Your Dead - Trailer
Review LA Times - "The name Sidney Lumet conjures a certain manner of movie -- a tough, tight film filled with strong performances and an exacting sense of process, an interest in procedure and how things work. Link
What is a dystopian society and am I living in one now?
"A dystopia is a fictional society that is the antithesis of utopia. It is usually characterized by an oppressive social control, such as an authoritarian or totalitarian government." Link
These are a list of the top 50 Dystopian films: Link
An interview with Ridley Scott from Wired - discussing his new directors cut of "Blade Runner" - "Scott: It's been ongoing so long, it never went away. So I'm used to it. It kept reemerging, and that's when I realized that it had really unusual staying power. And it's all very well, at the time, as the person who made it, to say, "Well, I knew it had." But I didn't, really, at the time. I knew I'd done a pretty interesting movie which, in fact, was extremely interesting but was so unusual that the majority of people were taken aback. They simply didn't get it. Or, I think, better now to say they were enormously distracted by the environment." Link
These are four foreign films in non English I always enjoy viewing - Wings of Desire, Breathless, Chungking Express, La Dolce Vita, however, there are too many films to mention which are among my favorites on Edward Coupland's 100 best non English film's poll.
Although I mighy not agree with the order of rank given these wonderful films, it is difficult to decide which film is better then the next on this incredible list of noteworthy films: Link
For all the people making "To Do Lists" before you pass. Here's a sardonic comedy about two cancer patients who made a list of things to do - "The Bucket List." The two leads are given a diagnosis they had weeks to live and head out to complete their list of to-do-before-you-die plans.
The film stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman and is directed by Rob Reiner.
In the sixties and seventies it was not uncommon for young people to take up a quest, more exactly a journey, to find meaning in life. It was a time before the malls and mass consummerism we know today. Some never came back from that journey, whether it was drugs, madness or idealism - the road ended.
Sean Penn has written and directed a film, "Into The Wild" which to me is a story of one such quest for a spirtual life in a material world.
Sean never stops surprising me with his artistic and humanitarian endeavors. Sean's new film "Into The Wild" has Emile Hirsh in the lead role and a cast of some of my favorite actors - William Hurt, Vince Vaughn and Catherene Keener to name a few.
"IN the spring of 1992, after vagabonding around the country for two years, Christopher McCandless, a 24-year-old Virginian and Emory graduate, hitchhiked to Alaska and set off into the wilderness with little more than a .22-caliber rifle and a 10-pound sack of rice. Not far from the Teklanika River, he set up camp in an abandoned International Harvester bus, a 1940s relic of the Fairbanks City Transit System. He lived there for four months, from late April to late August, before finally starving to death. When his body was discovered in September, he weighed only 67 pounds." Link
The film is based on the book "Into The Wild" by Jack Krakauer.
"After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he went to live in the wilderness. Four months later, he turned up dead. His diary, letters and two notes found at a remote campsite tell of his desperate effort to survive, apparently stranded by an injury and slowly starving. They also reflect the posturing of a confused young man, raised in affluent Annandale, Va., who self-consciously adopted a Tolstoyan renunciation of wealth and return to nature." Link
