For Veterans, The Point Of No ‘Return’ Often Can Be Found At Home

Kelli, the young Ohio woman portrayed by Linda Cardellini in “Return,” joined the National Guard right after completing high school in the mid-1990s, long after it provided a safe haven for draft-eligible men who weren’t anxious to go to Vietnam to save Southeast Asia for democracy and fast-food franchises. Like many other Americans her age,…

Gurus o’ Gold: Top 2in’ It (Pt 2 of 2)

The Gurus are now locked into their Top 2 in all Oscar award except for the 3 Shorts categories.

In these 10 categories today, the Gurus have Hugo taking 5 statues home. That would make Hugo the film with the most Oscar wins this season… though with 4 projected wins (Picture, Actor, Director, Score), some would say that The Artist was winning the war.

GROSS BEHAVIOR: Sound and Fury…

Movie going is unquestionably destined to become the opera of the future. By that I mean that the 18th century’s favorite form of entertainment still exists but it long ago ceded its vaunted position. The movies today cannot compete with television and that diversion abetted by home entertainment has had the biggest impact on the Seventh Art since its debut circa 1896.

Wilmington on DVDs. The Rum Diary, Harold & Kumar Christmas

This sort-of cinematic roman a clef, changed by writer-director Bruce Robinson—considerably, but that’s all right—is a good nasty show pulsing and snapping and exploding with the witty chaos, counter-culture venom and inspired invective that were the Good Doctor’s mock-shock-and-awe stock in trade. Second-hand Gonzo, it’s true, but even diluted Thompson packs a wallop, since the raw unfiltered original blows the back of your head off.

17 Days To Oscar: A Thin Line Between Win & Lose

When an Academy member, just like any other kid in high school, tells their friends whom they voted for, they want to feel good about defending their choice. Fair or not, Melissa McCarthy is “the one who shit in the sink” this year. They may have laughed their colostomy bags off when they saw the film and most voters feel good about Ms McCarthy getting nominated. But when it comes down to bestowing the gold, shit in the pie in the name of dignity will win out over shit in the sink caused by bad Mexican food every time.

Gurus o’ Gold: Top 2in’ It (Pt 1 of 2)

Who/What are the Top Two in each category of the Oscars, now just 18 short days away?

The Gurus are in lockstep on 5 of the winners-to-be right now and in 1 of those categories, there is 100% agreement on the #1 and the #2 candidate. The blurriest categories, based on these votes, are Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.

My DVD Wrapup: A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, Lady and the Tramp, Downton Abbey, more…

If I were younger and had been far more stoned than I’ve been in years, I probably would have enjoyed “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas” quite a bit more than I did. Apparently, too, if I were rich enough to afford a Blu-ray 3D television, the experience would have been enhanced exponentially. Nothing freaks out stoners faster than images flying off a screen and landing in their laps.

Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Project Nim

Oh Nim. Humans sorry. Forgive us.

DP/30: New Acting Nominee Interviews

New on DP/30 this week:

Best Actress Nominee
Michelle Williams

Best Actor Nominees
Gary Oldman
Demian Bichir

DVD Geek: Godzilla

No other land or people have suffered from the effects of manmade atomic destruction as Japan has, and the monster, Godzilla, is a metaphor of that destruction that has proven to be as far reaching and enduring in its truthfulness as the creature itself has been in popularity. Even America, which is as symbiotically entwined with Japan’s nuclear catastrophes as the American version of the film is with the Japanese version, has embraced the subliminal power that is conveyed by the rubber-suited monster, and its later, upgraded special effect iterations, raging across the captivating miniature landscapes and cityscapes.

Wilmington on Movies: The Woman in Black: Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens

So, at least we can go to a horror movie where we don’t have to watch more mock home movie or surveillance camera photography of monstrous stuff, or kibitz on teen/20 actors being slaughtered in another artificial holocaust for sale.

The Weekend Report, February 5, 2012

With the industry girding for Super Bowl, the opening movie going salvo was heartening. Weekend revenues were off 8% from seven days earlier but a hearty 35% improved from 2011 when debuts of The Roommate and Sanctum topped the charts with respective box office of $15 million and $9.4 million.

Neither Chronicle nor The Woman in Black was expected to open as well as last weekend’s leader The Grey that bowed to $19.7 million. Pundits have largely readjusted estimates to reflect the growing influence of older viewers and the new entries weren’t targeted to plus 25s. However, while the former skewed 55% male and the latter 59% female, they also drew in 61% younger than 25% for Chronicle and 57% in the same demo for Woman in Black.

Len’s Weekend Report to come…

Friday Estimates: February 4, 2012

Two studios had strong starts with genre product, The Grey has a solid Friday-to-Friday hold, and saving sea creatures is no big miracle on this day.

Wilmington on DVDs: The Big Year; Winged Migration; Life of Birds, Transformers and more

Bay and his crew (and a lot of the actors and voice actors) are still able to pump enough wild invention, heavy film technique, weirdo energy and Wowie-Kazowie-Blam-Blam-Blam-Kaboom-Vavoom-Wacka-Wacka-Wacka-Kerboom!!!!!!! into the show to impress the hell out of you at times.

Wilmington on DVD. Pick of the Week: New. Drive

Neo-noir is this picture’s middle name, and its forebears are The Driver (of course) and John Boorman’s Point Blank, with Lee Marvin, and Peter Yates’ Bullitt, with Steve McQueen, and William Friedkin’s The French Connection and Michael Mann‘s outlaw movies Thief and Heat—and even perhaps Jean-Pierre Melville‘s Le Samourai, which has a hero hit man (played by Alain Delon) who’s just as cool, just as silent, murderous and secretly romantic as Gosling’s Driver is here.

25 Days To Oscar: The Little Things

With apologies to Mr. Sondheim…

It’s the little things you do together,
Do together,
Do together
That make perfect Oscar seasons.
The voters you pursue together,
Awards you accrue together,
An Image you redo together
That make Oscar a joy.
Mmhmm…

The Gronvall Files: Asghar Farhadi, writer/director of A Separation

Asghar Farhadi: When I have an image in mind, this image makes me keep returning to my past. I go into my memories, and I start selecting here and there, putting them together. Simultaneously with this process of assembling memories, the characters are being born. And at the same time, the story also starts developing. It’s very difficult for me to describe my process. I’m not really aware of what’s going on, really, as I’m thinking. Many things happen in an unconscious way.

The DVD Wrapup: Transformers 3D, In Time, Dead Hooker In A Trunk…

“Dead Hooker in a Trunk” is the title of a do-it-yourself horror flick by Jen and Sylvia Soska, who not only co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred, but also are credited as co-producers, set decorators and assistants to the editor and cinematographer. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made PB&J sandwiches for the cast and crew, as well. Unlike the great headlines and titles that point to lousy stories and movies, however, “Dead Hooker in a Trunk” is both a madly inventive parody of slasher flicks and a deliciously dark comedy.

Wilmington on Movies: Man on a Ledge

Man on a Ledge has that slick, self-satisfied gleam movies can get when they cost too much and they’re stuffed with formula and clichés and stars, and nobody can do anything about it. It also has a plot so preposterous, motivations so inane, and an ending so bonkers that the only possible way to play them may be for laughs, if the show were good at comedy.

Wilmington on Movies: The Grey

At its best, The Grey reminds you of such classics as Boorman’s and Dickey’s Deliverance, or Lev Kuleshov‘s London-derived Russian silent Outside the Law, or even a flawed but exciting show like Lee Tamahori’s and David Mamet’s The Edge, The Grey makes the wilderness a terrifying place. And it works, sometimes smashingly.