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Review: The Town (TIFF 2010)

By Joe Utichi (Subscribe to Joe Utichi's posts), Posted Sep 10th 2010 2:45PM
Filed under: Theatrical Reviews, Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Reviews, Cinematical


As an actor, Ben Affleck's name over a title has been a worrying sight in recent years. The 38-year-old's career in front of the camera has shown its share of promise - Good Will Hunting, Hollywoodland, Chasing Amy - but it's just as often disappointing. For every promising performance, there's a Pearl Harbor, a Daredevil or a Gigli.

In his twenties and early thirties we might have forgiven this sort of batting average in favor of his rugged movie-star looks and that David conquering Goliath story that saw him and Matt Damon take home 1998's Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Hunting. But there's a point at which promise can be declared unfulfilled, and Affleck seemed to have passed it. These days, ask a moviegoer if they'd like to see the new Ben Affleck film and they're likely to recoil and make vague excuses about visits to the hair salon.

2007's "New Ben Affleck Film", though, delivered on promises we didn't even know he'd made. Gone, Baby, Gone, Affleck's directorial debut, came out of nowhere to deliver a punch to the gut. Here was a mature, adult drama directed with a skill that belied its helmer's limited experience in that role. It was a statement of intent: Ben Affleck has more to offer.

But anyone can get lucky - with a cast that included Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, not to mention Affleck's talented younger brother Casey, and with source material from Dennis Lehane, Gone, Baby, Gone had plenty of safety cards to play. With his follow-up, The Town, Affleck proves he's no one-trick pony. It's just as smart and well-executed as Affleck's last, and with him back in front of the camera too, it delivers on all that promise of Affleck's earlier career as an actor.
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Review: Nanny McPhee Returns

By Joe Utichi (Subscribe to Joe Utichi's posts), Posted Aug 20th 2010 11:15AM
Filed under: Comedy, Theatrical Reviews, Family Films, Remakes and Sequels, Reviews, Cinematical


When actors craft movie roles for themselves they tend to play to their own ever-active egos. So Matt Damon becomes the hyper-intelligent wunderkind of Good Will Hunting. Ben Stiller transforms into a male model in Zoolander. Vincent Gallo casts Chloe Sevigny to...

It's a surprise, then, that the character closest to Emma Thompson's heart is Nanny McPhee, a snaggletooth wielding, boil encrusted uber-nanny whose brand of cool discipline terrifies and charms in equal measure. 2005's original was scripted by Thompson and based on the Nurse Matilda series of books by Christianna Brand and made an impressive amount of money at the box office.

The sequel diverts from the books inasmuch as the eponymous Nanny doesn't return to the children of the first film but rather finds a new family in need of help, governed by frazzled mother Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal). We're out of 19th Century England and onto a rural farm during World War 2.
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Universal Asks Non-Employees to Skip Their AA Meetings

By Joe Utichi (Subscribe to Joe Utichi's posts), Posted Aug 17th 2010 7:15PM
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Cinematical
It's a story that seems to have been ripped from the pages of some caper comedy. Maybe some day it will become one. In a massive, 27-year breach of security at the Universal Studios in Los Angeles, Twelve-step program recovering alcoholics have been attending meetings on the lot without the proper credentials. By telling security they're a "friend of Bill's," the attendees have been taking advantage of the program provided for Universal employees.

The practice, which survived even the beefed up security put in place in the wake of 9/11, has lasted nearly three decades right under the noses of studio brass, but Nikki Finke reports that it came to the attention of studio chief Ron Meyer, who "went ballistic" when he found out.
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Cinematical's UK Top 5: Summer Screen, 'The Room' and the 80s Revisited

By Joe Utichi (Subscribe to Joe Utichi's posts), Posted Jul 30th 2010 7:33PM
Filed under: Columns, Columns, Cinematical


As the summer heat continues – by UK standards, we should be expecting torrents of rain any second by this point – darkened cinemas are becoming increasingly less appealing. Particularly if they're not air-conditioned. So what better way to throw off the shackles of a roof than by taking in a film on the big screen in the open-air surroundings of London's Somerset House, where Film4 Summer Screen kicks off this week? Also on the agenda, we've got a Scottish screening for one of humanity's best worst films and the 80s invasion – already old news across the pond – finally comes to the UK.

5. Discover Gainsbourg

I haven't seen Joann Sfar's biopic of French maverick Serge Gainsbourg, but it opens across the UK today and promises an exciting look at the life of singer-songwriter and father of actor Charlotte. Today, The Curzon cinema in Soho is putting on a special screening of the film, preceded by an introduction from the director and followed by live performances of some of Gainsbourg's work. What better way to get an insight into an enigmatic soul? More news here.
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Interview: The Very Genre-Friendly Charisma Carpenter

By Joe Utichi (Subscribe to Joe Utichi's posts), Posted Jul 24th 2010 8:02PM
Filed under: Action, Horror, Interviews, Celebrity Interviews, Cinematical


On the small screen, she was the quintessential all-American cheerleader, both in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars. It was a role for she'd had plenty of real-life experience as a San Diego Chargers cheerleader in the early 90s.

But despite starting her TV career in 1995, with a guest spot on Baywatch, and seeing plenty of success in that medium, the 39-year-old actress has yet to properly crack features. That's all set to change this year. First up is a British horror film, Psychosis, which is what has brought her to London for an exclusive chat with Cinematical today.

And later next month she'll play Jason Statham's character's girlfriend in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables. Despite a 15-year career, it's her first major Hollywood blockbuster. She sits down to discuss the film and update us on those rumours about big screen translations for Buffy and Veronica Mars...
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'Monsters' Teaser Unleashed

By Joe Utichi (Subscribe to Joe Utichi's posts), Posted Jul 23rd 2010 6:48PM
Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Trailers and Clips, Cinematical


I may only have spent a couple of months with Cinematical, but if you've read more than a few of my posts in that time you've probably heard me banging on about the brilliance of Gareth Edwards's Monsters, which I saw at this year's Edinburgh Film Festival in June.

IGN today has your first proper look at the film, courtesy of a brand new teaser trailer, in which I'm quoted banging on about its brilliance yet again. But it can't be understated: Monsters is genuinely one of the most exciting debut feature films I've seen in my career, and it marks the arrival of a talent whose ability to handle epic scale whilst still maintaining an emotional core is sorely lacking from most of his Hollywood competitors.

The film follows a photojournalist and the daughter of his publisher (fantastic performances from Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able) as they must trek through an 'infected zone' in Mexico, in which alien life from a crashed probe has infested, in order to get back to the walled safety of home in the United States. It'll be an oft-repeated story of the shoot that it was shot guerilla-style on location for no more than $400,000, and that Edwards did all the effects on his home computer, but don't let that sort of story put you off - this is a film which packs a $100m punch.

Check out the trailer after the jump.
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Interview: Kevin Macdonald of 'Life in a Day'

By Joe Utichi (Subscribe to Joe Utichi's posts), Posted Jul 23rd 2010 5:18PM
Filed under: Interviews, Celebrity Interviews, Cinematical


Oscar-winning documentarian Kevin Macdonald has his work cut out for him with his latest project. Life in a Day is an experiment that blends the immediacy of home filmmaking given a global platform on YouTube with a curious anthropological look at life in the digital age.

This coming Saturday, 24th July, Macdonald and producer Ridley Scott have asked anyone with a camcorder to film a day in their lives and submit it for inclusion in the project. He'll then blend the clips together to create a feature film, which will premiere at next year's Sundance Film Festival. 20 of those whose contributions make the final film will be flown out to Park City, Utah to attend the premiere.

But what does he expect to receive? How will he sort the footage? Will he be inundated with amateur porn? Sitting down with Cinematical for his only interview ahead of the big shoot day, Macdonald reveals all about his hopes and fears for the project and explains how you can take part.
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