Yes, No, Maybe So: "Real Steel"

Mackie say

"Hey Hey Hey, Hugh Jackman is in the house!!!"

Real Steel opens in October 2011. A weird time for a summer movie to open. Except that it's a parody of a summer movie and not an actual summer movie, right? Right. Thought so. What? It's not? ohno. LOLZ

In Shawn Levy's Real Steel, Hugh Jackman builds giant boxing robots to carry on in his manly sweaty boxing footsteps. He now runs a boxing club for robots or something. Or maybe he just visits and trains them? Anthony Mackie plays some sort of mic-wielding emcee.

(omg. please let him battle Eminem again as, like, a cameo subplot. That'd be so sweet.)




So let's give Real Steel the Yes, No, Maybe So™ Film Experience trailer treatment.

Yes. Moments worth watching in the Real Steel trailer: Hugh Jackman in slo-mo;  Hugh Jackman talking. Close up of Hugh Jackman sweaty chest hair in black and white; Hugh Jackman punching the air; Hugh Jackman wearing a hoodie; Hugh Jackman "resting" on the pavement (ouch); Hugh Jackman  Paparazzi!; Hugh Jackman "this is what it's all about!!!"; Hugh Jackman with remote control; Hugh Jackman in sunglasses; Hugh Jackman with sad face; Hugh Jackman shouting "Bring It!!!" no, wait. Nix the last part. He was trying too hard to be cool. That wasn't right. That's the take they used?

No. I don't wanna get too literal about this -- literal is lame when it comes to summer spectaculars -- but the premise doesn't work even by the standards of stoopidity. The popularity of Transformers aside, the reason people like watching boxing is because of the flesh but mostly because of the blood. It's a visceral animalistic thrill to watch people beat each other to (near) death. If there's no flesh and no blood why would feverish bloodthirsty crowds show up? Or is it like strictly the monster truck demolition derby crowd they're after and not a four quadrant kind of thing? (But even then there are actual people in the machines that might get squashed: therefore drama.)  The concept would make more sense if the robots were like androids... but then this would also be a really gross trailer and the movie would be rated R and you can't have that anymore. 

Maybe So. When you have the buffer of a movie star you love, braindead movies can be fun. Unless the dumbness makes the star look bad or like said star is trying too hard and then it just becomes sad.

Please don't try too hard Jackman. Please don't shout "Bring it!" any more. Or maybe whisper it or sing it if you're contractually obliged to deliver the line. That is all.
____- Signed, a concerned Jackmaniac

P.S. ...who would really like you to do a movie musical before you are 80 years old. WHEN?! Stop making stupid movies.
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Today's Must Watch: 14 (Silent) Character Types

Oh to have the New York Times arts budget. They've asked 14 actors to recreate classic character types in 1 minute segments and the results are at turns breathtakingly gorgeous (Natalie Portman), funny (James Franco), exciting (Javier Bardem), questionable (Jesse Eisenberg?) and sometimes plain old garden variety awesome (Tilda Swinton's Falconetti?) Yes please.

Tilda Swinton

Noomi Rapace

Anthony Mackie

But my favorite might be Jennifer Lawrence's screaming victim.

Watch all 14 here (also starring Vincent Cassell, Chloë Moretz, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall and Lesley Manville.)  It'll only take you 14 minutes!

Cinematic Soldiers for Veteran's Day

Robert here. For many of us being a soldier is an experience we'll only get vicariously courtesy of the movies.  In honor of Veteran's Day, I thought I'd share some of my favorite portrayals of American soldiers.  They aren't always the most famous actors or the biggest roles, but they've made impressions.  If you've not seen any of the particular films listed and don't want to know who lives or dies, you may want to skip to the next entry.

General George S. Patton played by George C. Scott in Patton (1970)

Starting off with a big one.  Patton is such a towering figure in American History and Scott's Oscar winning portrayal gives us an understanding of the man who often found himself caught in a place between his own talents and the stern hand he felt was needed and the more careful policies of those he served.

Steven Pushkov played by John Savage in The Deer Hunter (1978)

As the sense of patriotism imbued by World War II films made way for the cynicism of the Vietnam era characters like Steven whose great sacrifice seemed to leave no echo or purpose became more and more common.  There's something unspoken and tragic about not only Savage's portrayal of a newlywed filled with a sense of duty only to have his life change forever, but the fact that his story is so common it doesn't even warrant more than a tertiary plot line.

Homer Parrish played by Harrold Russell in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

One of the many successes of The Best Years of Our Lives was its ability to illuminate the lasting scars of even what was considered the most just of wars.  Primary to this success was Russell's portrayal of Homer Parrish.  It's the type of performance that makes you feel every struggle and frustration of a man's life as you come to a greater understanding of someone other than yourself and feel thankful that the film will be around for posterity so that others may understand.

Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins played by Morgan Freeman in Glory (1989)

Early in his career, Freeman plays the kind of role that he'd become known for: strong and inspirational, the perfect audience surrogate for what we'd like to be.  His character is certainly less demanding than Washington's Trip, and while his promotion is a sign of how far we can come in times of struggle (and a nice feel good moment) the realization that it doesn't much matter to others, particularly white union troops, is a reminder of how reality often has a lot of catching up to do.

Jay 'Chef' Hicks played by Frederic Forrest in Apocalypse Now (1979)

In a film populated by characters of extreme mental anguish, the soldiers aboard Captain Willis's transport are our only real connection to reality.  Most easily relatable is Chef, whose enviable backstory (he's a saucier in New Orleans) and palpable fear draw us in.  By the time he reaches Kurtz's compound an delivers one of the more haunting speeches in the film, "I used to think if I died in an evil place, then my soul wouldn't be able to make it to Heaven. But now ... I don't care where it goes, as long as it ain't here." we know those wishes won't likely be filled.  It's a moment we're spared seeing but I've played in my head over and over.

Pfc. Smithson Utivich played by B.J. Novak in Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Okay admittedly Novak isn't really given much to do with this character and you might be wondering why him in a movie filled with larger than life personalities.  Specifically because he isn't.  It's a reminder that most soldiers (and most of the "basterds") were practically just kids.  The utterance of his nickname "The Little Man" is a comical moment because it's rooted in truth.  He's no Brad Pitt or Steve McQueen or John Wayne.  But he doesn't have to be.  "The Little Man" can be a hero too.

Sgt. J.T. Sanborn played by Anthony Mackie in The Hurt Locker (2009)

Jeremy Renner's Sgt. James might be the wild man star of the story but Mackie's Sanborn has an arc that puts his to shame. Sanborn isn't just the straight man, he's a real man who slowly comes to understand why he's been so driven to follow the rules.  By the time he laments, "I don't even have a son." we've come to not only understand what he's so afraid of, but feel it as well.

Capt. James "Bugger" Staros played by Elias Koteas in The Thin Red Line (1998)

In a film where characters are sharply divided between the contemplative romantics and the realist cynics, Koteas's Staros is a welcome brush with reality.  His Captain is neither overwhelmed by the beauty of the world nor disgusted by its realities.  He's just a man who seems pretty sure of his position in the moral quandary between following orders and risking the lives of his men.  It's difficult not to like him for this reason, but once the film is done with him, we know not to expect any karmic reward for his dissonance.  Malick's world doesn't work like that.

Sgt. O'Neill played by John C. McGinley in Platoon (1986)

My lasting memory of Platoon has nothing to do with the three lead actors, but instead features a young McGinley, sitting in a fox hole as a wash of emotion plays over his face: relief and probably guilt that he's survived another attack, fear that eventually it won't matter, and utter desperation to just plain go home.  Moments like that give you pause to realize the importance of the little stories in films.  Whether Sgt. O'Neill lived or died wasn't essential to the film's major dramatic story, but it sure was essential to him.

Pvt. Stanley Mellish played by Adam Goldberg in Saving Private Ryan (1998)

In a film where Steven Spielberg wanted deaths to be more than plot points, perhaps none stung as much as Pvt. Mellish.  A likable character, (it feels good watching him declare his Judaism to passing Nazi prisoners), Mellish's killing is so affecting not only because it's slow and feels so real, but because there is a realization that in this small fight, in the middle of a larger battle, in the middle of a larger war, the bad guy won, and there's no going back.

What performances of soldiers, whether lead, supporting or even smaller, have left a lasting impression on you?

Links: One Hendricks, Two Goslings, Multiple Albees

Have you seen that Christina Hendricks is the new face of London Fog? Such a delectable woman.

I caught the commercial to the new Katharine Heigl movie Life as We Know It (2010) recently in which Hendricks dies and Heigl, her best friend, turns out to be the "raise my child" choice in the will. The whole time I was watching the short film (I'd say "trailer" but it contains the whole movie. No need to buy a ticket) I kept thinking 'Wait. You're going to tease me with Christina and then make me watch Katharine instead for 2 hours?' And bear in mind, I like the oft-hated Katharine Heigl. Honestly, sometimes Hollywood is really slow on the draw with what the public responds to. People are nuts for Christina Hendricks. Look around the web. Where's her big movie role? It's not like Mad Men doesn't have long hiatuses.

Film Brain Jean Luc Godard's no show letter for a career honor in 1995. Think he'll show up for the Governor's Ball in LA? I don't.
Film Business Asia Monga will represent Taiwan for this year's foreign film Oscar race. Yeah yeah, I know I need to update the pages.
Village Voice fun interview with Edward Albee who has a new play Off Broadway. You have to admire his self regard...

The world would be a better place if theaters were filled with my plays all the time.

because, you know, he's right about that!
Washington Post Bernadette Peters in Sondheim's Follies. Holy ____ Consider my ticket bought.
Guardian Gerard Depardieu doesn't get the fuss over Juliette Binoche
Movie Dearest reviews the first season of Cougar Town
Gawker "Anne Rice Quivers with Delight" at...


Drive in Double marquees for the win!

MNPP who wore it best? confident men in pink bathrobes. Hmmm, I wanted more options. Didn't Grant or Hudson don one, too?
The Wrap Anthony Mackie for MI:4? We keep rooting for him. A big budget action flick probably couldn't hurt.
/Film All Good Things starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling will get a tiny limited December release. All the better to compete directly with Ryan Gosling's other tiny limited December release Blue Valentine. I seriously don't understand movie distributors.
MCI Scott Pilgrim vs. The Matrix
Boing Boing not cinema but this "Tom the Dancing Bug" cartoon about evil fetuses is hilarious especially if, like me, you need to laugh to stop from crying about what's happening in America right now.

Today Show and The Hurt Locker

Saw this on Awards Daily and had to share here. Since I rechristened the war film The Sexy Locker a few weeks ago, I find that I'm even more fond of it. I suppose this is why we give our loved ones nicknames... terms of endearment, if you will, to place it closer to the Oscar vernacular. And you need a little warm and fuzzy when you're dealing with the cold hard tick-tock realities of bombs and perpetual near death experiences.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I love how Kathryn Bigelow is totally gracious about all the "first woman" and "ex-wife" business that comes with the Oscar media circus, but is smart and confident enough to sidestep it simultaneously. She never brings it up herself (and don't be fooled: it would help her win if she fully embraced it) but just acknowledges it with a smile and moves on. Film Experience contributor Jose wrote up his frustration with this media reduction on his blog Movies Kick Ass. David Poland recently sounded off about it, too.

I concur with both of them but the reason I've mentioned the Cameron/Bigelow marriage so often is because I'm entitled to. When I was a baby cinephile I was a fan of both of them while they were married... So, I get a waiver. I'm allowed to bring it up because I have no sensationalistic agenda, just nostalgia. Like Demi Moore and Bruce Willis after them, I find super friendly divorced couples totally fascinating.

Anyway, speaking of gracious: Anthony Mackie.

And he has a right to sour grapes if he wanted it given the actual Supporting Actor shortlist. Here's my alternative ballot... (and yes, I will finish my personal awards soon. I'll start again tomorrow. I'm usually finished before Oscar but Sundance threw off my timetable this year)

Anthony Mackie is Bewitched On Stage, Bothered On Screen

If you happen to be in NY this weekend, this is your last chance to see the latest free Shakespeare in the Park production, Euripides' The Bacchae. (Common wisdom says these free shows are always sold out but I had no trouble getting in so try it, especially if it's wet outside) The greek tragedy plays like a slightly gender-fucked avant garde musical in this particular production. I had seen it once before 13 years ago and the only thing I remembered about it was the absolutely sick gory finale. It's still disgustingly bloody.

Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening) goes for a smeared lipstick rock god style Dionysys. His nonbeliever victim is none other than familiar screen actor Anthony Mackie.

One could argue that both actors are having a great summer. See also: Taking Woodstock (Groff) and The Hurt Locker (Mackie).

I know I haven't given The Hurt Locker enough play this summer at the blog. I guess I figured it would still be around and still in the discussion mix come Oscar season. At the very least, if one is feeling cynical, it'll keep popping up as a shoulda coulda woulda type film. Who knows how the larger voting bodies will respond. Time will tell but surely easier, softer and more nakedly awards-hungry pictures will challenge it for dominance within a month or two.

tick tock tick tock tick tock

The clock hands seems to be weirdly stuck when it comes to Mackie's career. The lack of media attention is bewildering. He turns 3o next month and while he can't complain about the amount of work he gets, shouldn't he be a bigger name by now? The Hurt Locker, in which he plays an increasingly bothered soldier who's worried that his commanding officer is too fond of risk-taking, is his meatiest role since the little seen gay artist film Brother to Brother (2003) but will it open the floodgates to better and/or bigger roles?

Mackie (clockwise from top left) as gay author in Brother to Brother,
bullying boxer in Million Dollar Baby, drug dealer in Half Nelson,
exhausted soldier in The Hurt Locker and angry royal in The Bacchae.

Reading the program notes to The Bacchae reminded me how limited the roles can be for a black actor in Hollywood. Mackie's film roles seem to break down to the physical: military men (Eagle Eye, The Hurt Locker), tough athletes (We Are Marshall, Million Dollar Baby) lowlife criminals (Half Nelson, The Man) and sexual objects (Freedomland, Brother to Brother, She Hate Me) ... but he's actually a Julliard trained actor. Come to think of it Mackie has even played against this dichotomy as "Papa Doc" in 8 Mile, wherein he was only posing as a thug. Eminem defeats him in battle merely by rapping about Doc's education and upper class privilege.

We're familiar with his face but how many moviegoers know his name?

The Hurt Locker can only help his career. He already won an Independent Spirit Nomination for it last year. But with co-star Jeremy Renner and director Kathryn Bigelow sucking up all the oxygen in Locker's Oscar-buzz room, is his breakout role still to come?
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We Can't Wait #12 The Hurt Locker

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce and Evangeline Lilly.
Synopsis An Army bomb squad in Iraq tries not to get blowed up.
Brought to you by Summit Entertainment
Expected Release Date Ummm...

Joe: The Hurt Locker is probably the 2009 title we know the most about, because it played the festival circuit pretty heavily, including Toronto, Montreal, and Venice (where it won an armload of awards, if not the big one). It even nabbed two Independent Spirit nominations. Early word is very good, and Bigelow, who manages to be artful even in her failures, is said to have put together a gorgeous action movie. Nobody will see it, of course, but we can all drive ourselves crazy talking about why!

Whitney: As much as I love that there is a prolific female director working in action, I'm so not interested in this movie. And even when Ralph Fiennes is in some really wonderful films, I just want to punch him in his ugly ugly face. That's right, RaLF!

Joe: Backing away. Waiting to see how JA responds.

Nathaniel: Is it time for the Bizarrro blog-a-thon again already? Yeah that Fiennes is a dog.
No, no, no. I can't do the Bizarro-thon. I can't. I can't.

See, Kathryn Bigelow makes me feel earnest. I love her. I can't entirely explain it. I like how deadly serious her films are, even when they kinda should be funnier (hi, Point Break). Okay, at least I love the idea of Kathryn Bigelow (stereotype defying action director) even when I don't love some of the films. She'll always have Near Dark and Strange Days! Thus, this goes on my list.

Fox: I side with Nathaniel on being a fan of Bigelow. As for the subject matter ("The Iraq"), I wonder how she'll handle it. Most directors screw it up, but Bigelow seems to be a mature, even-handed lady. I'll freakin' go to war for Point Break. That movie is a joy to watch. And Near Dark? Well, can we just say that it's probably a genre masterpiece? Come on Whitney, just say it! JUST SAY IT!

Whitney: I totally blanked on Near Dark. I'll give you that.

JA: Sorry, it took me a little extra time to get all my rings off so as to deliver a scar-free Ralph-defending righteous beat-down.

Ahem.

Did somebody just go bad-mouthing my Ralph? NUH UH. That's crazy talk. Not just crazy-talk, it deserves extra syllables. Kuh-Razy Talk. And on grounds of him being ugly? Ugly? Have you only seen him in the Harry Potter movies, Whitney? He has a nose in real life, you know - a regal, parochial nose* I want to make love to on its own, at that. Not just a pair of serpentine slits. But He Who Shan't Be Spoken Of, Ralph can defend himself. He's a big boy. A big boy with an oft-deployed serial killer's sexy come-hither-and-be-destroyed stare. Swoon.


This movie didn't make my list, because I am just so over Iraq movies. Unless they can beat Channing Tatum rolling around in his underwear for several minutes, I'm done for the time being. I need a breather. That said, I do like Bigelow, and Ralph (insert fist-to-chest "recognize" thump here), and if I keep hearing that Jeremy Renner - a wonderful actor that does not get the credit he deserves - is great in it, I'll probably see it too.

* Excuse me, in my thunder I named Ralph's nose after a boarding school. I meant "patrician's nose." Do carry on. It's early. Need coffee.

Joe: I kind of like the idea of Ralph having a parochial nose, though. What kind of a nose would that be? The kind of nose that only associates with other noses like it?

Anyway, I feel like I should stick up for Whitney since I too don't find Ralph quite all that, in the looks department. That's right, I'll bear my share of the blowback from this particular explosion, much like Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and co. will no doubt do in the movie.

And THAT'S how you bring it 'round full-circle.

Nathaniel: Ha! and indeed.

Readers, do I put too much faith in Kathryn Bigelow? Have you taken my unsubtle hints over the past few years and screened Near Dark or Strange Days? Has my unshakeable belief that action films peaked from 1986-1995 -- years which not coincidentally surrounded MIA auteur James Cameron's marriage to Kathryn Bigelow and included both of their best films -- confused my thinking? Do you have any desire to see this or are you, like JA, burnt out on Iraq movies? (Unless Channing Tatum strips in them)

In case you missed any entries they went like so...
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We Can't Wait:
#1 Inglourious Basterds, #2 Where the Wild Things Are, #3 Fantastic Mr. Fox,
#4 Avatar, #5 Bright Star, #6 Shutter Island, #7 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
#8 Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, #9 Nailed, #10 Taking Woodstock,
#11 Watchmen, #12 The Hurt Locker, #13 The Road, #14 The Tree of Life
#15 Away We Go, #16 500 Days of Summer, #17 Drag Me To Hell,
#18 Whatever Works, #19 Broken Embraces, #20 Nine (the musical)
intro (orphans -didn't make group list)
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