AWN Blogs

With Paul Thomas Anderson's fifth film, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, arriving on DVD this week, it seems like a perfect time to celebrate his impressive body of work. In five outings he has delivered five great films — three of which are brilliant. Often working with the same actors, Anderson tells epic stories that touch on the complexity of family and life in general. In just over a decade, he has established himself as one of the premiere directors working today, having made more than one modern classic.

In 1997, Anderson burst onto the scene with two releases. The first was actually a hold over from the year before — the mysterious drama HARD EIGHT. To quote my original review, "From the opening in the coffee shop and many of the long passages of dialogue, one gets the distinct feel that this film is riding the wave of PULP FICTION… But what distinguishes it from Quentin Tarantino’s pop-culture-infused classic is the tone." The quiet, haunting tone of this film will show up again in MAGNOLIA and BLOOD. John, played by Anderson regular John C. Reilly, is down on his luck in Vegas when the mysterious Sydney, played by Anderson regular Philip Baker Hall, comes along and offers him help. With an unsettling soundtrack of low hums rather than music, Anderson crafts uncertainty about Sydney's motivations, which keeps us entranced in the tale. What does he want from John or flirty waitress Clementine, played wonderfully by Gwyneth Paltrow? It's a mystery driven by its characters, which are all looking for redemption from dark secrets.

With Tim Burton's marvelous (and overlooked) adaptation of SWEENEY TODD arriving on DVD this week, This Weekend's Film Festival honors the five best musical adaptations of the 21st Century so far. Ever since MOULIN ROUGE revitalized the screen musical, we have seen at least one or two stage musicals coming to movie theaters each year. So with no further ado, let's raise the curtain and begin our countdown of the best.

Now we start off the lineup with a cheat. TOPSY-TURVY isn't a straight adaptation of a stage musical, but a look at Gilbert and Sullivan's creation and first performance of their famed musical, THE MIKADO. It's also a cheat because it had a limited run at the end of 1999, making it eligible for the 2000 Oscar, where it won for Best Costume Design and Best Makeup. And I know 2000 isn't really the 21st century either, but if you're going to cheat than you might as well go for it with gusto. Moreover, I decided to choose this film over inferior adaptations of other Broadway musicals, so consider it a favor.

With this film, director/writer David Gordon Green has produced four wonderful independent dramas. I eagerly await his first mainstream comedy, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, coming later this year. I hope that stoner comedy is a big hit so that he'll have more clout to do bigger productions in the vein of this film. What distinguishes all his films is his attention for personality, especially when it comes to the way people talk and the way they fall in love. There's a sweet romance woven into this tragic drama that reminds us that turbulent relationships probably started beautifully at the beginning.

Based on Stewart O'Nan's novel, the drama takes place in an average-sized Pennsylvania town, centering around three workers at a Chinese restaurant. Annie (Kate Beckinsale, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING) is a waitress, who struggles to take care of her four-year-old daughter Tara (Gracie Hudson), because she is separated from her troubled husband Glenn (Sam Rockwell, MATCHSTICK MEN), who has turned to religion to deal with his depression and alcoholism. At the motel, Annie has a routine of meeting with a married man named Nate (Nicky Katt, SECONDHAND LIONS), who is more of a diversion than a solution to her problems. Working with Annie is high schooler Arthur (Michael Angarano, LORDS OF DOGTOWN) and sassy Barb (Amy Sedaris, STRANGERS WITH CANDY). Arthur is dealing with his professor father Don (Griffin Dunne, AFTER HOURS) walking out on his mom Louise (Jeanetta Arnette, BOYS DON'T CRY), while he's developing a sweet romance with the quirky new girl Lila (Olivia Thirlby, JUNO).

This film is featured as bonus material on the special-edition of THE ARISTOCATS.

PINOCCHIO's Figaro the cat gets his moment in the spotlight in this 1946 Walt Disney short cartoon. It's bath day and Figaro doesn't want to take one. Making matters worse, his owner primps him out with a big red bow. Adding insult to injury, when he heads outside afterward, he is picked on as a sissy by the mangy alley cats.

The premise is simple. One of the funniest touches was making Minnie Mouse Figaro's owner. There's something strange about a giant rodent trying to bathe a kitten. While director Charles A. Nichols and writer Eric Gurney fit in some nice gags, this 7-minute short lacks the energy that was signature to Looney Tunes shorts from the same era. The timing even feels slow at times. While the gags aren't the best, the premise contains enough overall irony that is doesn't lack all charms. Even though Figaro gets treated like a wimp that's not the impression he leaves in the end.

Having missed a chance to highlight the release of I AM LEGEND last week when it debuted on DVD, I'm taking the chance this week to build a lineup around one the best genre flicks of 2007. Tied together with the theme of world destroying diseases, the five films for this week deal with a real plague and fictional ones. Infected people die in some tales while in others they turn into vampires and zombies in others. Horror and sci-fi fans will love This Weekend's Film Festival. If you're not fan, then prepare to watch these five great films from behind the slits of your fingers.

Roger Corman's THE MASQUE OF RED DEATH kicks off This Weekend's Film Festival. As the red death plague spreads across Europe, the Satan-worshipping Prince Prospero, played with usual devilish flare by Vincent Price, inflicts draconian rule over the dying peasants of the villages. At court, he presides over the privileged, who live lives of debauchery and decadence despite the great death that takes place just outside the castle walls. The Prince takes the innocent Francesca (Jane Asher) captive and tries to lure her to the dark side. But as Prospero gets closer to corrupting the innocent, the more his grip on power seems to be slipping away. We root for his downfall in this grand battle between good and evil. "This is all the more supported with the grand style of Corman, who finds a way to wallow in the perverse without making us feel dirty afterward," to quote my original review. Based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe, the plague is given a physical representation as a man in bright red hooded robes, giving the disease a real lurking presence. Corman plays with epic horror conventions, while skewering the apathetic rich as they party the night away while the poor suffer at their feet.

With the feature-length Dr. Seuss track record quite poor, I wasn't expecting much from Blue Sky's CG HORTON HEARS A WHO! I mean even animation legend Chuck Jones and Ted "Dr. Seuss" Geisel had a hard time stretching this same story into a half hour TV special. The trailers seemed to show only filler material — recycled gags that have been done many, many times before. But when it was all said and done, and the credits began to roll, I was hooked. This is a sweet tale that had heart and humor for everyone in the crowd, balancing nicely between the hip and the Seussian.

As the story goes, Horton the elephant (Jim Carrey, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS) hears tiny voices coming from a speck of dust floating in the air. Determined to protect the tiny person or persons on the speck, Horton catches the piece of dust on a clover. Turns out, there is a whole town on this speck called Whoville, and Horton makes contact with its Mayor (Steve Carell, TV's THE OFFICE). In both Horton's and the Mayor's world, the inhabitants do not believe in the tales of tiny people and huge elephants in the sky, respectively. Mrs. Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) feels that Horton's belief in Whoville will spark imagination in the children, creating rebellion, so she sends out Vlad the vulture (not Vlad the bunny with the cookies) to destroy the clover. Meanwhile, the movement of the speck is creating havoc in Whoville and the Mayor must convince his people of the truth before their town in destroyed. Dedicated to keeping Whoville safe, Horton heads out to place the speck on a flower at the top of a mountain.

In my review of SAW II, I stated that I was happy to report that the SAW films were getting better. I'll say when it comes to story this is still true, but I'm no longer happy about it. Increasing levels of gore have begun to overshadow the dark morality tales at the core of the franchise. While SAW III has a tighter and more intriguing story than the other installments, I get the sick feeling that like so many other horror films that want to shock their audience than claim some loftier goals are really just juvenile frauds trying to out gross their friends.

Leaving off from where the last film did, we get the gory details about what happened to the surviving characters. Then we meet Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh, CRASH), a depressed doctor who is cheating on her husband. She is taken prisoner by Jigsaw (Tobin Bell, IN THE LINE OF FIRE), the killer who loves to play twisted games with his victims, and his assistant Amanda (Shawnee Smith, TV's THE STAND). Lynn is strapped with an explosive collar, which will blow her head off if either she tries to run or the dying Jigsaw flatlines while another captive named Jeff (Angus Macfadyen, BRAVEHEART) tries to complete three morality tests.

Regret is a big issue dealt within the Oscar-nominated ATONEMENT, which arrived on DVD this week. Thus, the latest edition of This Weekend's Film Festival collects five films that deal with the issue of remorse. Like ATONEMENT, several of this week's films address the issue of regret held over from actions in a character's youth. How much responsibility does the "adult you" have for mistakes the "child you" committed? Again like ATONEMENT, others deal with the regret that comes in lost loves. Life and death choices also lead to lifelong regret in several of the films as well. Thrillers and dramas fill this week's lineup, which I'm sure you won't regret watching.

Love and regret go hand and hand so often in art. Few films deal with this subject as powerfully as Wim Wenders' PARIS, TEXAS. To begin, Travis, in a classic performance from Harry Dean Stanton, is found wondering in the desert. He's lost physically and metaphorically. His brother Walt, played wonderfully by Dean Stockwell, picks him up. He been gone for four years, and ever since Walt and his wife have been taking care of Travis' son Hunter, who was dropped off by Travis' estranged wife Jane, who is played in a short, but searing, performance from Nastassja Kinski. Written by Sam Shepard, the story slowly reveals details about the characters as it goes along. Why did Travis disappear? Where is Jane? Is it better for Hunter to stay with his new family or be with his biological parents? All these issues are infused with the guilt of the characters, especially Travis, who longs for a lost life that he ruined. At one point, Travis and Hunter will head out in search of Jane. As I said in my original review, "One of the best road movies ever made — the film stays with you after it’s done and leaves you with feelings of both sadness and joy."

There's something about vampires that's fascinating. That's why we get at least one vampire movie a year. Sadly, they're often not that good. When I first heard about 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, which is based on Steven Niles and Ben Templesmith's comic, it sounded like a promising premise — vampires attack a remote Alaskan town when it plunges into 30 days of night. When this premise clicks, the film is at its best, however the lack of character development undermines the film's emotional pull to often.

Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett, SIN CITY) is the sheriff of Barrow, Alaska. When the town descends into 30 days of continuous night during the winter, 4/5th of the population leaves. On the evening of the last sunset, strange and bloody occurrences plague the town. Cell phones are stolen and burned, dogs are killed, helicopters are destroyed. While dealing with these events, Eben learns that his estranged wife, Stella (Melissa George, DERAILED), a fire marshal, is in town. She wants to keep her presence a secret, but a traffic accident forces her to ask Eben for help. Unwilling to talk, he sends a deputy to pick her up so that she can make the last plane back to Anchorage. Well, she doesn't make the plane (as I'm sure you guessed), and ends up helping Eben deal with a stranger (Ben Foster, 3:10 TO YUMA), who is causing trouble in the dinner. As they lock up the haggard-looking man, he warns them that death is coming. With the promise of eternal life, he has set up the scenario to allow a tribe of vampires, lead by Marlow (Danny Huston, THE CONSTANT GARDENER), to feed freely on the helpless and isolated town for the next month.