BLU-TUESDAY ... August 11

It’s been a bit since I detailed what was coming out on BD. This might be because I don’t like to think about all the lovely movies I cannot afford to buy, my not currently having a job and all. This week poses a bit of a challenge though as there are a couple I’d definitely like to add to my collection. In case you weren’t aware, ICHI THE KILLER, ST. ELMO’S FIRE and THE NINTH GATE are all making their BD debuts today. You can even get yourself the big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles box set on BD, including all three live action films as well as the underrated TMNT animated film from a couple years back. Those aren’t the ones that are doing it for me. No, my sights are set on I LOVE YOU, MAN, 17 AGAIN and the Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, THE CLASS.


17 AGAIN
OK, I don’t want to buy 17 AGAIN but I will definitely be heading out to my local video shop bright and early to take it home for the evening. I missed this one in theatres and, to be fair, I missed it on purpose. The trouble is that I fell in love with Zac Efron some time shortly after that and now I don’t care how bad it is going to be; I just want to see those abs in high definition.

FEATURES:
- Outtakes
- Zac’s dance flashback (whatever that is supposed to be)
- Unseen additional footage


I LOVE YOU, MAN
I did not review this film when it was in theatres but I did catch it. Paul Rudd and Jason Segel are perfect together in this, the latest bromance to show us that there can be some serious love between straight men and that that can lead to some serious laughs. This is the film that finally made Paul Rudd into the leading man he’s always been destined to be and hopefully, we will see plenty more of him from here on in. If you need more Paul Rudd love right now, be sure to check out Black Sheep’s feature, I LOVE YOU, PAUL RUDD.

FEATURES:
- Commentary track with director, John Hamburg and Rudd & Segel
- Making of
- Extended/Deleted scenes
- Gag reel / Improv reel
- Red band trailer

ENTRE LES MURS (THE CLASS)
This was hands down one of my favorite movies from 2008. I have yet to catch DEPARTURES but it was a shock to me when the Japanese film beat out THE CLASS at the Oscars this year. THE CLASS exposes the state of the education system today by making it seem real and by making it human. It is shot like a documentary but this is the fictionalized version of writer/star, Francois Begaudeau’s life. If his real life, which the film is based on, is anywhere near as chaotic, I certainly do not envy him. THE CLASS is truly a masterpiece and not to be missed.

FEATURES:
- Making of
- Commentary on select scenes
- Actor workshops and portraits

ENTRE LES MURS (THE CLASS)

Written by Francois Bégaudeau, Robin Campillo and Laurent Cantet
Directed by Laurent Cantet
Starring Francois Bégaudeau


Sit still and pay attention because class is now in session. This year’s winner at Cannes for the Palmes d’Or and Academy Award nominee for Foreign Language Film contender, ENTRE LES MURS (THE CLASS), is a surprisingly engaging experience considering what you are actually watching unravel on screen. Francois Bégaudeau is a teacher and a novelist. He wrote a book about his experiences teaching teenagers in a troubled Parisian neighborhood, translated that into a screenplay and now finds himself playing a version of himself in the film. It is now our turn to attend his class and watch in amazement as the games play out. The film rarely leaves the school grounds but it keeps its audience focused at all times, which is a lot more than I can say for Bégaudeau and his students.


Calling what happens in Bégaudeau’s classroom a game is a gross understatement. It is more like a war of minds and egos. The teachers all go in at the beginning of the session feeling defensive and preparing themselves for the worst, therefore often fulfilling their own prophecies. The students, well, it isn’t that they are so uninterested in learning; they just care more about social status and fitting in. So they spend the time they should be conjugating verbs coming up with witty quips and trying to look big and tough in front of their recess buddies. And with 30 or so of them and only one teacher, the odds are far from being in Bégaudeau’s favor.


The entire cast is stellar, as is required in order for the cinema verité approach to be believable. This is all the more impressive considering the majority of them have never acted before, including Bégaudeau himself. ENTRE LES MURS is a great film, funny one minute as the banter flies through the room like a renegade spitball and distressing the next, when the realization that scenarios just like this are happening all over the civilized world. It is also a heck of a lot more entertaining than I remember school to be.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: In Your Face, Jonas Brothers!

Last year around this time, a certain teen queen unleashed her “Best of Both Worlds” concert to theatres in 3D. Having been billed as an exclusive one-week engagement, little girls everywhere came out in droves to catch Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus do her split personality thing up on screen to the tune of over $30 million. A year has passed and the smart folks at Disney decided to get another teen sensation back on the screen in 3D, only to find that audiences would opt to watch a man in grandma drag go to jail instead.


No, THE JONAS BROTHERS: 3D CONCERT EXPERIENCE could not topple TYLER PERRY’S MADEA GOES TO JAIL at the box office this weekend. This is even after Perry’s most successful film to date suffered a 60% drop over last week. Worse yet, the young Jonas siblings opened on almost twice the screens as Montana/Cyrus did and made less than half the cash. There was no urgency to catch the show opening weekend with some looming empty threat that the film would only be playing for a week, mind you. (It should be noted that as soon as Montana brought in the green last year, the one-week engagement was extended indefinitely.) It was a solid showing but it seems to me that there must have been a lot of little girls who just decided to stay home. Besides, the Jonas Brothers that big and in your face, 3D styles, would be pretty frightening, I think. For a boy band, they’re really not that cute … or profitable apparently.


Last week’s winner of 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, saw its already impressive gross improve another 45% this week. Albeit not my pick for Best Picture of the year, this is clearly the people’s favorite. In its 16th week in theatres, it shows no signs of stopping. It is Fox Searchlight’s first Best Picture winner and it is now their widest release to date. The Danny Boyle film has plenty more market internationally to conquer, home video sales still ahead and it will certainly surpass THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON to become the highest grossing Best Picture nominee from this year.


A couple of other big Oscar winners saw serious gains this week too. Both added hundreds of screens to capitalize on their Oscar visibility and both saw promising results well into their domestic runs. Audience favorite, Kate Winslet, took home the Best Actress Oscar for THE READER and the Weinstein Company sleeper hit saw its grosses increase 10% over last week for a grand total of just over $27 million. Not bad for a movie that seemed doomed to fall away into obscurity until it garnered five surprise Oscar nods. Focus Features’ MILK earned Oscars for Best Original Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black) and Best Actor (Sean Penn) did even better, increasing 37% over last week and bringing its cume over $30 million 14 weeks into its domestic run. Both other Best Picture nominees, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and FROST/NIXON saw its returns dwindle this week as neither garnered any serious screen time during the telecast.


You don’t have to be an Oscar winner to perform well in limited release though. Foreign Language Oscar losers, THE CLASS and WALTZ WITH BASHIR continued to see their grosses grow despite missing out on the crown. And in completely non-Oscar related news, Joaquin Phoenix’s supposedly last film, TWO LOVERS, tacked on about 60 screens and soared over 500% and critical darling, GOMORRA, improved over 140% over last week with an average that would rival any title in the Top 10. You don’t want to mess with the GORMORRA boys.

NEXT WEEK: Everyone will be watching to see if THE WATCHMEN is worth all of this overblown hype as it opens on over 3500 screens. Given that there are no other wide releases expected next weekend, I guess people think it’s going to be big. The question now is how big but my question is rather why anyone cares at all.

Source: Box Office Mojo

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: For Love and Horror

You would never know there was an economic crisis going on if you just looked at this year’s box office results. For the second week in a row, the highest drop off was just over 30% and that wasn’t even for the critically lambasted PINK PANTHER 2. No, there was plenty to celebrate this weekend with Valentine’s Day falling on the biggest date night of the week and FRIDAY THE 13TH returning to theatres just in time to have the release day coincide with the film’s title.


When the original FRIDAY THE 13TH opened in 1980, it cumed about $6 million and went on to take in a total of just under $40 million. This was big back then. Oh how far we have come as this latest relaunch of a franchise has amassed more than that in just one weekend. I’m sure once you take inflation into consideration, the original still has a lead but it won’t for long. Not only did this new installment debut on Friday the 13th to the best opening day of the year, it also had the added benefit of coming out in time for Valentine’s Day. Horror and comedy are the top favorite genres of couple on dates so it is no shocker to see this kind of response.


Keeping that in mind, it is also no surprise to see last week’s champ, HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, hold on so strongly with just a 29% decline. In fact, its hold could account for the mediocre debut of CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC. The “Shopaholic” series by author, Sophie Kinsella, is immensely popular, much more so that the “He’s Just Not That Into You” book, but yet could not compete with the latter’s star power. Also, it might have hurt its chances given that spending irresponsibly is really not the direction the country is going in.


Tom Tykwer’s bid at the mainstream, THE INTERNATIONAL, had to settle for a 7th place start. Tykwer, famous for his cult classic, RUN LOLA RUN, put together a stylish thriller with top-notch actors (Clive Owen and Naomi Watts) but an overcomplicated plot bogged it down. Also, viewers might want to deal with the idea of corrupt banks just as much as foolish shopping habits. No, what viewers want these days is leftovers as both CORALINE and TAKEN saw declines under 10%. This kind of staying power is practically unheard of.


It’s the week before Oscar and all through the house, not creature was stirring except for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. The front-runner for Best Picture is the only one out of the five nominees to place in the Top 10 this year. Clearly people are clamoring to see it before the big event as they assume it will inevitably be crowned king dog. The rest of the nominees fall in the following order: THE READER ($2 million, down 10%), THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON ($1.6 million, down 30%), MILK ($816K, down 27.5%) and FROST/NIXON ($473K, down 39%). Meanwhile, Oscar hopeful in the Foreign Language category, THE CLASS, continued to play well in limited release, pulling in $222K, for an increase of 23.5% over last week.

NEXT WEEK: I highly recommend you catch up on your Oscar pics as there certainly isn’t anything worth seeing in first run. Well, if you like teen comedies about jocks joining the cheerleading squad to score, you could see FIRED UP. Or if you like men in grandmother drag placed in awkward scenarios, you could check out TYLER PERRY’S MADEA GOES TO JAIL. I told you you’d want to stay home.

Black Sheep's Top 10 of 2008

I will always remember 2008 as the year I stopped sleeping. Oddly enough, from day one, I developed some very erratic but very effective insomnia. I am still dealing with it to this day but I can feel it falling away with every passing night. Many people offered advice – warm milk, booze before bed, meditation. My favorite trick though was to lie still and think back on the day that had just ended. I would lie there and stare up at the ceiling and recall all the blessings, no matter how small, that I had been fortunate enough to encounter throughout my day. And so, as 2008 enters its final hours, I would like to lie back on my pillow and remember 10 of the best film experiences I had this last year. When I’m done, I will say goodnight.

In alphabetical order, here is Black Sheep’s Top 10 of 2008 …

THE DARK KNIGHT

If you’re going to be big, you have to think big from the start. Director Christopher Nolan did just that with his second Batman picture. It is grand to behold and exhilarating to experience. Aside from laying claim to Heath Ledger’s unforgettable last performance, THE DARK KNIGHT can also assert itself as the most accomplished superhero movie of all time.

THE DUCHESS

Saul Dibb’s little seen film may have been dismissed as just another period piece where a woman is sold off by her family for financial gain and stature but I assure you there is so much more to see here. The Duchess of Devonshire endured many a hardship behind her castle walls and Dibb, along with the lovely Keira Knightly, strip the period drama of its binding costume to show the naked person barely breathing underneath.

ENTRE LES MURS (THE CLASS)

Director, Laurent Cantet, along with screenwriter and star, Francois Bégaudeau, invite us to take our seats in this year’s winner of the Palmes d’Or at Cannes. Shot like a documentary, THE CLASS is an important lesson about the state of today’s classroom. Sure, we all know the situation isn’t great but Bégaudeau wants us to feel the reality of what it means to have a seat at the back of the class. Pay attention because the test will follow immediately after.

MAN ON WIRE

In 1974, Philippe Petit crossed New York’s twin towers across a tight rope eight times. Documentary filmmaker, James Marsh, was not there to capture it. And so a new style of documentary is born where all the players from back in the day are on board to tell their stories while actors reenact the events of 34 years ago. Pieced together as though it were a narrative piece, the story itself is a caper that will leave you hanging on the edge of your seat as though it were one of the towers.

MILK

This is Gus Van Sant’s masterpiece. It is a soft and tender piece about bravery and strength, that had me enraged one moment, laughing the next and crying practically throughout. Harvey Milk fought for the simple human rights of gay men and women in California as the first openly gay man to be elected to public office and he was killed for this. Telling his story today is heartbreaking as gay men and women are still fighting for these same rights some 30 years later.

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED

When I first saw this movie, I left the theatre and felt entirely disoriented. Rachel had just gotten married and I felt as though I were a guest at this event. The weekend was tumultuous but gorgeous and filled with deep love and all the hardship that comes with this kind of intimacy. The entire cast is so genuine that you feel as though they have known each other for as long as they would have had they been real. This is a true testament to Jenny Lumet’s subtle screenplay and Jonathan Demme’s beautifully spontaneous direction.

THE READER

Stephen Daldry is a very sumptuous filmmaker. He tells his stories with conviction and without apology for their nature. THE READER is a complicated, multi-layered work that may have missed its mark in someone else’s hand. Daldry forces us to face this tale of passion, betrayal and healing and asks us to go through our own personal interaction with these emotions. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes are there to hold our hands along the way.

THE VISITOR

Simple, understated and effective are just a few words that can be thrown at Thomas McCarthy’s second film and Richard Jenkins’ breakout performance. This unique story about a widower who walks around his own life as though it weren’t his own unspools in such an unexpected fashion that one feels like visiting again and again.

WALL•E

It only takes about four minutes to fall completely in love with WALL•E. No matter how many times I’ve seen this film (and I assure you, I’ve seen it a few times already), I am always in awe of what Pixar was able to accomplish. Not only did they manage to put out an eco-friendly film that criticizes humanity’s disposable habits and our growing reliance on conglomerate control but they also crafted one of the most endearing love stories in recent history. To create a genuine love between genderless, animated robots is what places Pixar out of this world compared with all their imitators.

THE WRESTLER

Darren Aronofsky should feel very good about this one. THE WRESTLER is not just his best film but it is also the best American film of the year. Like P.T. Anderson did last year with THERE WILL BE BLOOD, Aronofsky has reinvented himself as an American storyteller who understands its people and their convictions. It is a dirty, gritty experience that mirrors the hardships of so many and it never stops fighting.

Be sure to check back tomorrow to get all the details on Black Sheep's Best of 2008 contest. Happy New Year!

Black Sheep @ the 2008 Festival Nouveau Cinema

And we’ve come down to the final two. The Festival Nouveau Cinema is now in it’s final day here in Montreal. The big closing night party and screening came last night. I guess Saturday was better so everyone can just wake up and get back to normal tomorrow. Ah, normal. How dull you will be in comparison with the week I just had. Maybe the festival staff will find me hanging outside the theatre tomorrow pretending like nothing has ended.

Thanks to Chris and Oliver at the pressroom – you were very accommodating, getting me everything that I needed when I needed it. And congratulations go out to Montreal filmmaker, Adrian Wills, for winning one of the festival's audience awards, the Radio-Canada People's Choice Award for his Beatles/Cirque de Soleil documentary, ALL TOGETHER NOW. I had the pleasure of interviewing Adrian during the festival; just click on the film's title to jump to that.

A few things I caught at the festival will find their ways to Black Sheep in the coming weeks but I will close now with my last two films. Talk about night and day with these two … Let’s start with the night.

FILTH AND WISDOM


They said I couldn’t do it. They said I could never be objective when it came to Madonna. Yes, I am a fan. I have been since I was 10 years old. I defended her during her sex craze in the early 90’s. I even enjoyed her “American Life” album, describing her rap attempt as cute. But I cannot condone this. FILTH AND WISDOM is Madonna’s first directorial effort. I’ve wondered if she perhaps made this film as a backdoor entrance into the film world considering the front door used for her acting has been slammed in her face so many times now. She may have snuck in but this film will not get her an invitation to stay.


Where does one begin when everything is wrong? FILTH AND WISDOM is supposed to center around three roommates in London who find themselves at various stages on what Madonna feels to be the eternal pull of life between, wait for it, filth and wisdom. In Madonna’s ongoing pursuit of spiritual enlightenment and the subsequent preaching of said enlightenment to all of us lesser folk, she tells us, through incessant and obvious narration from lead actor and Gogol Bordello frontman, Eugene Hutz (the only natural element of this mess) that all people live somewhere between these two guiding forces and that inevitably every person will be pulled toward the opposite of the force that has always guided them. Given that she wants to make such grand statements about humanity, it would have helped if she treated her characters like actual people. Instead, they are merely symbols being moved wherever needed in the story, whether there is any build or not, in order to serve the greater purpose of making Madonna’s point. If she decides to try her hand at directing again, she should A) allow the writing to someone else (she co-wrote this with Dan Cadan), B) tell a person’s story that allows for insight instead of trying so hard to cram insight into a hollow story and C) not use her own music in the soundtrack more than once … that’s just plain tacky.

ENTRE LES MURS (THE CLASS)


This year’s winner at Cannes for the Palmes d’Or and France’s official submission to the Academy Awards as Foreign Language Film contender, ENTRE LES MURS (THE CLASS) is such an engaging experience, which is quite the surprise when you think about what you are actually watching unravel on screen. Francois Bégaudeau is a teacher and novelist. He wrote a book about his experiences teaching teenagers in a troubled Parisian neighborhood, translated that into a screenplay and now finds himself playing a version of himself in the film. It is now our turn to sit with him in his classroom, as presented by director Laurent Cantet. For just over two hours, we sit with Bégaudeau’s French class and watch in amazement as the games play out. Considering the film rarely leaves the school grounds, if at all, it keeps its audience focused at all times, which is a lot more than I can say for Bégaudeau and his students.


Calling what happens in Bégaudeau’s classroom a game is a gross understatement. It is more like a war of the minds and egos. The teachers all go in at the beginning of the session feeling defensive and preparing themselves for the worst, therefore often fulfilling their own prophecies. The students, well, it isn’t that they are so uninterested in learning. They just care more about social status and where they fit in. So they spend the time they should be spending on conjugating verbs coming up with witty quips and trying to look big and tough in front of their recess buddies. The classroom has become a stage to buy yourself credibility on the playground. And with 30 or so of them and only one Francois Bégaudeau, the odds are far from being in his favor. Kids today know this and the kids in this particular class do an excellent job conveying these things in the most subtle of fashions. The entire cast is stellar as the cinema verité stylistic approach requires them to be in order to be believable. This is all the more impressive considering the majority of them have never acted before, including Bégaudeau himself. ENTRE LES MURS is a great film, funny one minute as the banter flies through the room and distressing the next when the realization that scenarios just like these are happening all over the civilized world. It is also a heck of a lot more entertaining than I remember school to be.

So what have we learnt here today class? Well, I learnt that Madonna is just like that kid in Monsieur Bégaudeau’s class – she thinks she has all the answers and likes to look cool when she can but if she would actually stop yapping for a second, she might actually learn something from the real teacher.

Black Sheep @ the 2008 Festival Nouveau Cinema

If I were 37 years old, you wouldn’t be calling me old (at least I hope you wouldn’t) but you certainly wouldn’t be looking at me like something new either. Somehow though, after 37 years of existence in Montreal, the Festival Nouveau Cinema still warrants its title. Year after year, the festival offers Montreal filmgoers a variety of fresh films that range in style and genre and are anything but ordinary. This year is certainly no different and I am fortunate enough to have the whole week off to drift in and out of the dark cinemas as I please so that I can report back to you about all the wonders I was privileged to see. The following are the Top 5 titles I am most excited about …

ENTRE LES MURS
(THE CLASS)


This is actually the festival’s closing film selection and what a fantastic selection it is. Laurent Cantet’s adaptation of Francois Begaudeau’s novel was the surprise winner of the Palmes d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film is a hybrid of documentary style and activist thinking, told in a loose narrative form. Begaudeau plays himself, a French teacher in what could simply be described as a difficult Paris classroom but that would be a gross understatement. A lesson needs to be learned and I’m sure by the film’s close, we will have learnt just as much as the kids in class.

FILTH AND WISDOM


After years of being laughed out of Hollywood for uh, poor, acting attempts, Madonna has finally gotten the point. People don’t want to see her in front of the camera. So in taking a lesson from filmmaker hubby, Guy Ritchie, she has decided to try her hand at directing instead. It may have received mixed reviews from its Berlin film festival premiere earlier this year but the curiosity factor is just too great to resist.

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED


I am extremely excited for this much talked about Jonathan Demme picture. This is primarily because I’ve already seen it and cannot wait to get married again. I caught this film at its North American premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and cried frequently throughout the film when I wasn’t in awe of how surprisingly visceral it was. When I left the screening, I was disoriented, stunned. This is rare for someone who sees a lot of movies, let me tell you. That said, I will not say too much about the film because it just needs to be experienced.

ALL TOGETHER NOW


I am not the richest guy around so even though I would love to take a short trip out to Vegas to catch the Beatles’ highly acclaimed Cirque de Soleil show, LOVE, I simply cannot. For now, I will have to settle for the closest thing to it, Adrian Willis’s behind the scenes documentary, ALL TOGETHER NOW. Willis has lensed a number of Cirque shows prior so he is no stranger to capturing the remarkably magical experience that only the Cirque de Soleil can create. And even though it isn’t the same as being there, there are advantages to this experience. If I was fortunate enough to find myself a seat at the show itself, I’m fairly positive I would not be privy to Paul McCartney’s reaction to this unexpected interpretaton.

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK


This is another film that has yet to connect with audiences in its festival run from earlier this year. It has been touched up though and the world will finally get to see how the mind that penned the genius works, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, will approach directing his first feature. To call Charlie Kaufman unique is too facile. His way of thinking is just far enough beyond the masses so as not speak above them but to present them with situations they can understand but could never have imagined themselves. Given that SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK seems to be about a giant reconstruction of the city within an immense airplane hanger, I would say we’re in for another mind melt.

The Festival Nouveau Cinema is on now and take it from me, you need to get your tickets right away. I was thinking that being accredited for the festival meant I could just waltz in to whatever film I wanted but not so. Apparently you still need to get a ticket and I was rejected from my first film already. Good times. No, but seriously, there are some serious good times to be had. For a complete list of films, please visit the Festival Nouveau Cinema web site. And be sure to check back on Black Sheep throughout the festival as I report back on these films and a dozen others (from MAN ON WIRE to ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO and more!)