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Everything You Need to Know About "The Joaquin Phoenix Situation"

By Kevin Kelly (Subscribe to Kevin Kelly's posts), Posted May 15th 2010 9:03PM
Filed under: Cinematical


I spent most of this morning putting together a timeline (you can watch a movie of it after the break, best viewed in fullscreen) showing some of the highlights of Joaquin Phoenix's life so far, which led me to some unexpected treats. Did you know he wigged out on the red carpet during Walk the Line? Apparently he thought a huge frog was crawling out of his hair. Or that he was rescued for a car wreck by director Werner Herzog? And this was all pre-"completely nuts" Phoenix. Then came the infamous appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, where he appeared to have lost all his marbles. Incoherent at best, the interview was a sham, and felt like a joke. Especially when Phoenix himself nearly cracked up at Dave's final line.

For those of you who might not have been following this apparent career (and sanity) flameout, it got a lot weirder. Here's a summary: October 2008 - Phoenix announces he's retiring from acting, and his brother in law Casey Affleck is present and says it's not a hoax. January 2009 - Affleck and Phoenix announce that a documentary is being made about Phoenix, with Affleck directing. That weekend, Phoenix "performs" for the first time in Las Vegas, falls off the stage, and it's all filmed by Affleck and crew. February 2009, his infamous David Letterman appearance occurs. May 2010, the movie is seen by a group of buyers who find it perplexing, and Casey Affleck is interviewed on ABC and says that the movie isn't a joke.

Oh, but there's more. That film, now titled I'm Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix, has been seen by a select few, and you can read on to find out about the worst perpetrated hoax in recent history, right after the break.
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Movie Villains and Their Pets

By Kevin Kelly (Subscribe to Kevin Kelly's posts), Posted Apr 7th 2010 10:32PM
Filed under: Fandom, Lists, Cinematical

They're giving Mickey Rourke's dual-whip-wielding, tougher-than-nails, check-out-my-grill bad guy Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash a cockatoo in Iron Man 2. Although Marvel has used characters named Whiplash before, this is a new character created specifically for the movie, but with some of the elements of the classic Iron Man Russian baddie The Crimson Dynamo tossed in. I just have no idea why they've decided to give him a pet cockatoo, unless they're trying to make him appear more human. Don't be surprised if he pulls an Ozzy Osbourne on it or something.

A lot of different villains have had pets over the years, and they either seem to be used for evil means, like devouring people, or as comic relief by failing miserably at their jobs. Which camp will Whiplash's cockatoo fall into? We won't know until the movie comes out, but we'll undoubtedly find out exactly why he has a this feathered friend, but if Vanko utters one Russian-laced line about "I know why the caged bird sings," so help me. But this reminded me that there's a long line of cinematic villains who have pets. Read on for our list of five villains who had animals that worked, and five that didn't.
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The Pixar Character Size Guide

By Kevin Kelly (Subscribe to Kevin Kelly's posts), Posted Apr 4th 2010 2:33PM
Filed under: Disney, Cinematical


Have you ever wanted to know how Mr. Incredible compares in size to Woody? How Nemo would stack up against Sully? Where the iconic Luxo Jr. lamp fits in with everything? Now you finally can. Designer Juan Pablo Bravo has painstakingly taken main characters from the Pixar films and placed them all in a silhouetted, size-specific lineup, just in case you need to know where everyone fits in. What's even more impressive is that he's done it in chronological order by release date.

Visit his site to download the massive version, which you can also find right here, and also check out his equally impressive 50 Movie Cars piece, which shows you the make and model of 50 iconic film and television vehicles. That is something I'd love to have as a poster, and that Pixar piece would make a nice wraparound for a child's room. Right? Or should I just admit that I want that one too? We're all big kids when it comes to Pixar.

[Via Slashfilm]
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SXSW Interview: Director Mat Hames of 'When I Rise'

By Kevin Kelly (Subscribe to Kevin Kelly's posts), Posted Mar 26th 2010 3:45PM
Filed under: SXSW, Festival Reports, Interviews, Celebrity Interviews, SXSW Film Festival, Cinematical


When I Rise is director Mat Hames' second feature length documentary, and it's a moving film about a racially charged incident that drew national attention at the University of Texas in 1957. You can read Cinematical's review of that film here. We sat down and spoke to Hames during SXSW, and he went into great detail about the production on this film, what it was like documenting Conrad, racism in Texas during the event, and what it takes to craft a good documentary. Read on beyond the break for the full interview.
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SXSW Review: This Movie Is Broken

By Kevin Kelly (Subscribe to Kevin Kelly's posts), Posted Mar 25th 2010 9:48AM
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Romance, SXSW, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports, Reviews, SXSW Film Festival, Cinematical


See that picture above? It's a bad representative photo because that is not what this movie is. This was buzz-worded around SXSW as a documentary about the Canadian band Broken Social Scene. The problem is that it's not a documentary at all, but rather a film that uses a concert as a backdrop. You don't get to find out who the band is, you don't explore how they formed, they don't talk about the offshoots and other groups who join in. You might already know that stuff if you're steeped in the current music scene, but I'm so tragically unhip that I didn't even who they were.

However, I am now a convert. The music is terrific, and that makes you ache for an actual documentary about these people. Who are they? How did they get together? Why are there so many band members? How bad is it when they fight? But, as mentioned above, you get none of this. You just hear the music and occasionally the camera will focus on concert footage of the band for a few moments. But that's it. Still, you do see and hear enough of them that you hope a live album from that concert will be released, it's just that wanting about them in this movie is an exercise in frustration.

It's almost forgivable because director Bruce McDonald uses the rich soundtrack and an actual concert as the lynchpin for this movie ... it's just too bad he takes a tremendous liberty with the audience and slaps them in the face at the end of the film.
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SXSW Review: Harry Brown

By Kevin Kelly (Subscribe to Kevin Kelly's posts), Posted Mar 24th 2010 12:48PM
Filed under: Action, Thrillers, SXSW, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports, Reviews, SXSW Film Festival, Cinematical


I'm beginning to worry about American audiences. Or rather, I'm beginning to worry more about American audiences, and Harry Brown is a good reason why. Why is that, you ask? Because we're starting to treat violence as a sport that's meant to be enjoyed and cheered along. It's not Michael Caine's fault, and I'd like to think that if you ask him, he'd say the same thing. Which isn't to say that he doesn't kick a lot of ass in this film. He does, and at 77 years old, he still looks impressive doing it. More than some of the current generation of young action wannabes.

But the problem isn't Caine. Either we've become so desensitized to onscreen death that it's no longer shocking, or we want characters to have revenge so badly that when it actually happens, we clap with delight. That's what happened in a full-house screening of Harry Brown at SXSW when audience members erupted into applause as Caine plunges a knife into the chest of a junkie, and they probably missed the shocked look on Caine's face during that scene: he appears to be just as surprised as the junkie he's stabbing.
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SXSW Review: World's Largest

By Kevin Kelly (Subscribe to Kevin Kelly's posts), Posted Mar 24th 2010 11:18AM
Filed under: Documentary, SXSW, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports, Reviews, SXSW Film Festival, Cinematical


Would a sign for the "World's Largest Pecan" make you pull off the interstate on a road trip and check it out? It probably depends on your mood and the state of your bladder. You've probably seen the signs for these before, or maybe you grew up near one. The most famous of these are the Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues in Minnesota, although there are several of those now, but there are dozens of other Largests scattered around the United States.

What peeved me the most about these things is finding out that they're all fake. Fiberglass and plaster doesn't make the World's Largest Strawberry. That's the World's Largest Fake Strawberry. But even more than that, it's the desperate hopes of a small town to bring visitors and hopefully dollars. City fathers and councilmen hoping that building a gigantic concrete trout will boost their tourism and economy. That's the heart of soul of what World's Largest is all about, which takes the film from whimsical and plants it in tragedy.
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