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+ Best Icelandic Movie of the Year + Most Overlooked Movie of the Year
Jacques is a bar owner in New York, who has no family or friends and is dying. So when a young vagrant by the name of Lucas, who has attempted suicide, shows up in his life, he trains him in his trade and makes him his heir. The Good Heart, the third feature written and directed by great Icelandic filmmaker Dagur Kári (Dark Horse/Voksne Mennesker (2005)), is a small but incredibly warm and well-told film. It is also extremely well-acted: Brian Cox (The Veteran (2011)) is outstanding as the old geezer, and Paul Dano (Weapons (2007)) doesn't shrink away next to the great alderman. For those who have seen the two together in Michael Cuesta's masterpiece L.I.E. (2001), it is an added joy to see them dramatically engaged in something very worth their capacities again here. The great theme of The Good Heart is to be good and able to give unconditionally, which is an important and noble core to a film that takes place mostly in a brown tavern. Countless scenes stand out and radiate with awesome dialog and originality. Kári also manages to somehow make the mythic metropolis seem almost small in a still credible way, - quite a feat. SPOILER The ending with its heart transplantation is the weakest point of this generally brilliant movie.
Cox and Dano discuss marriage in this scene from the film
Cost: Reportedly 3.8 mil. $ Box office: 343k $ = Box office disaster [The Good Heart premiered 11 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. Filming took place around April 2008 in New York, Iceland and the Dominican Republic. It opened #81 to a 5k $ opening weekend in 5 theaters in North America, its peak there, where it grossed just 20k $ (5.8 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Spain with 138k $ (40.2 %), Germany with 124k $ (36.2 %) and Iceland with 30k $ (8.7 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a scathing 1½/4 star review. It was nominated for the Nordic Council's Film Prize and won 4 out of 8 nominations for Edda Awards (Iceland's Oscar). Six years went by before Kári was ready with another film: Icelandic Virgin Mountain/Fúsi (2015). The Good Heart is rotten at 31 % with a 4.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of The Good Heart?
Gemma Arterton looks relaxed and sweet on this war-and-nation-indicating, good-humored poster for Lone Scherfig's Their Finest
Their Finest is the 9th theatrical feature from Danish master filmmaker Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners/Italiensk for Begyndere (2000)), written by Gaby Chiappe (EastEnders (2003-05)), based on the novel Their Finest Hour and a Half (2009) by Lissa Evans (Big Change for Stuart (2012)). While the Blitz haunts London, our Welsh hero Catrin is recognized for her writing skills and female perspective and involved in the making of a pivotal propaganda effort of Britain's Ministry of Information. While the war takes its toll on everyone, a rousing and encouraging film takes shape. The film within Their Finest is about the Dunkirk evacuation (26 May - 4 June 1940) during the Battle of Britain, which we will also see portrayed soon in Christopher Nolan's hugely anticipated Dunkirk (2017). The cinephile may object to some 'details' concerning the film-in-the-film: At times it seems they shoot it in the inauthentic widescreen format that Their Finest utilizes, (though for the cinema scene in the end it is changed into the appropriate 4:3 format.) They are allowed to shoot in color, which is historically inappropriate; the film doesn't refer to an actual film, but it is hard to think of which British war film in color from around 1940 it would allude to. During shooting they also film outside without lighting, which would have been impossible due to the slow speed of Technicolor stock. This being said the filmmaking sections of Their Finest do throw poignant life on the way a film in some cases is shaped and loses and gains qualities due to the many 'chefs' involved and the unforeseeable X'es of production. One of the fine things of Their Finest is that it reminds us that filmmaking is important at all times (as a peaceful, creative, artful cooperation of many people to entertain and illuminate their peers), and essential at times of unrest and war. The tediousness, difficulty and compromises of filmmaking is pitched against its magic and the ultimate joy at the end of the ardor; grabbing the hearts and imaginations of an audience. The film's not completely satisfying title is an abbreviation of Evans' novel's title, which refers to the running time of the film made in the story, which also hints to a famous quote by British prime minister Winston Churchill, which goes: "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves
that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand
years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'" For me this was one of those films were within its first minute or so, I felt strongly that this was one that I would enjoy. And although the film doesn't soar to the heights of genius and emotional depths that it might have and doesn't get everything right, it still is an enjoyable and touching film. Scherfig and Chiappe seem to have wanted to offer a female perspective on the period, its many trials and tribulations, which nevertheless develops into a romance. SPOILER In what seems a determination to stress this vision, - and with this the development of the young female protagonist into an independent and professionally active person and not 'just' one that catches a fellow to marry, - they kill off her cynically disposed, burgeoning lover before this gets to really develop. Their Finest depicts a time when women had to put up with a generally worse treatment in the West than we are used to today, thankfully, and to its honor it doesn't place the subjugation with one male villain but rather spread it out across several of them. Their chauvinism isn't debilitating although at times it is jarring to the modern ear, rather, it is treated as a social ill, a tragedy of its time that was changing for the better, undoubtedly helped along by the actions of people like our Catrin. SPOILER The film's greatest line by a longshot is a comeback Catrin makes to her cheating boyfriend and his paintings, which packs a fine punch. Gemma Arterton (The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)) delivers; she is sweet, competent, sensitive and as so does well in the lead, - although I still perceive her as a bit mousy and not a new Carrie Mulligan-league actress for instance, (Mulligan became world-famous through Scherfig's great An Education (2009)). Sam Claflin (Me Before You (2016)) is authentic as her mentor/admirer screenwriting partner. Bill Nighy (About Time (2013)) has the funnest part in the film as an aging diva actor. At a critical point, he grows into a moral beacon in just a single line, and I don't think Nighy really believed that his character would grow like this, and I at least didn't. The cast also benefits from small but good performances from the likes of Jack Huston (The Hot Potato (2012)), Richard E. Grant (Tooth (2004)), Henry Goodman (Green Street Hooligans (2005)), Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes (2009)), Jeremy Irons (Faeries (1999)) and Jake Lacy (Love the Coopers (2015)) as an American war hero turned (awful) actor. Lacy has his work cut out for him, as it is harder than one might think to play someone who can't act convincingly, but he mostly pulls it off. The film doesn't soar to impressive heights visually but makes the best of its means and succeeds in being funny, insightful, a bit romantic and an effective weepie along the way. Scherfig imbues it with her keen knowledge of and fondness for the British culture, language and people.
Cost: Estimated 10 mil. €, equal to approximately 11.28 mil. $ Box office: 11.8 mil. $ and counting = Too early to say [Their Finest premiered 11 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 117 minutes. BBC Films developed the film and hired Scherfig. Shooting took place in Wales and England, including at Pinewood Studios and in London, starting September 2015. The film opened #34 in 4 theaters to a 76k $ opening weekend in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 330 cinemas (different weeks) and grossed 3.6 mil. $. It has yet to open in one important market; Germany (6 July), but the film does not look like it will reach becoming a box office success. Their Finest is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Their Finest?
This stylish poster for Justin Lin's Fast & Furious lets the returning stars throw their reflections on the shiny hood of a hotrod
Dominic Toretto's sister Letty dies in an accident, and a criminal named Braga seeks drivers. The stars of the first film (The Fast and the Furious (2001)) are brought together again for the first time since in this the fourth entry in the increasingly gilt-edged franchise, which, unfortunately, is enormously hollow, superficial and lacking in suspense. Screenwriter Chris Morgan (Wanted (2008)) takes simplicity to a new level and even has the heroic characters refer to the villains as the bad guys. From the head-scratching intro scene (the hijacking of a tanker truck ends in a huge, disastrous explosion, - but somehow also in payment, which makes little sense), Fast & Furious unfolds as a bland mix of lukewarm dramatic scenes among the friends, who usually refer to each other as family, and action with unsubtle sex references (like fueling up...), destruction and sketchy CGI, including a poor climax taking place on roads inside a mountain. Taiwanese Justin Lin (Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)) returned for his second of four turns as director in the franchise here. Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman (2017)) makes her cinema debut in the film, but it can't change the fact that Fast & Furious is a solid bummer.
Cost: 85 mil. $ Box office: 363.1 mil. $ = Big hit [Fast & Furious premiered 12 March (California) and runs 107 minutes. In the franchise's chronology, the film takes place between 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006). Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, Mexico, Panama City, Panama and the Dominican Republic from February - June 2008. The film opened #1 to a 70.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for 3 consecutive weeks (#1-#2-#5) and grossed 155 mil. $ (42.7 % of the total gross). It made more domestically in its opening weekend than Tokyo Drift made in its entire run there. It broke the domestic opening record for April and Spring overall. It was the 17th highest-grossing film of the year globally. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1½ star review, equal to its rating here. It sold more than 3.3 mil. home video copies in North America, accruing an additional 53.8 mil. $. Lin came back to helm two more top-grossing entries: Fast Five (2011) and Fast & Furious 6 (2013). Fast & Furious is rotten at 28 % with a 4.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Six great performers are aligned on this poster for Judd Apatow's Funny People
A struggling, young comedian gets an incredible chance, when he gets hired to write jokes and be the personal assistant for comedy legend George Simmons, who, it turns out, is carrying around a serious secret. Funny People is the third theatrical feature for New-Yorker master writer-director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up (2007)). There is an awful lot that's good and likable in Funny People. It opens dubiously with an old recording of Adam Sandler (Spanglish (2004)) making prank calls, (shot by Apatow, who was his roommate at the time), but it turns out to have a lot more to offer than one might suppose; both in terms of lavish amounts of comedy and laughter, but also with a good story SPOILER about the altered priorities and possible realizations that can come from a near-death experience. Janusz Kaminski (Little Giants (1994)) raises the film with neat, narrative-appropriate cinematography. Sandler proves again that he can also act, besides goofing around and spouting profanities, and Seth Rogen (The Interview (2014)) is adorable as his very green protege Ira here. Aubrey Plaza (Dirty Grandpa (2016)), Jason Schwartzman (The Polka King (2017)), Jonah Hill (21 Jump Street (2012)), Eric Bana (Troy (2004)) and in particular Leslie Mann (Big Daddy (1999)) are also outstanding. Of the many celebrity cameos in Funny People, the one involving Eminem (8 Mile (2002)) and Ray Romano (The Last Word (2008)) deserves singling out; it's hilarious. Funny People is undeniably over-long, - in this case indicating a filmmaker who is simply too enamored with his own material, - and although this may be Apatow's most personal film, it isn't his best.
Cost: 75 mil. $ Box office: 71.5 mil. $ = Huge flop [Funny People premiered 20 July (USA) and runs 146 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco from September 2008 - January 2009. The film opened #1 to a 22.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell to #5 in its second week and then out of the top 5 and grossed 51.8 mil. $ (72.4 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 5.9 mil. $ (8.3 %) and the UK with 5.5 mil. $ (7.7 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 3½/4 stars, translating to a notch higher than this review. Funny People is fresh at 68 % with a 6.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Funny People?
One of the sparse, ominous and very black posters for Trey Edward Shults' It Comes at Night
It Comes at Night is the second feature for writer-director Trey Edward Shults (Krisha (2015)). A family of three live in a cabin in the woods in a future where a mysterious illness has thrown the world into chaos. As an outsider and his small family come into their lives, they keep self-preservation as their prime objective. This is a film that has impressed critics, - who are prone to throw superlatives at low-budget indies like this, which wears its refusal to throw light on just about anything in it as an honorary crown, - and antagonized many audiences, who feel let down by a horror that doesn't have as many frightening moments or genre game as they'd thought. The film features sound performances from Joel Edgerton (The Gift (2015)) and Christopher Abbott (James White (2015)) and a subtle, tense score by Brian McOmber (Krisha). It builds an unpleasant, paranoia-rife atmosphere but it undercuts its prospects by insisting on leaving us in the blank on too many fronts: SPOILER Who is our protagonist? (I guess the teenage son, who seems the most innocent and sympathetic, but he never does much actively.) What is happening? (The disease is never explained or shown much.) Where do our family come from? (We are almost led to believe that they have always lived in this isolated house in the woods.) Several things concerning the developments in the third act also raise questions, and the film ends leaving us confused; one would be overly forgiving in just labeling it ambiguous. What the point of the exercise is remains a mystery: Either the film seems to want us to ponder at why we need the spook tales that horror films are in the first place, instead of really committing to being an instance of said tradition itself; or it may also be taken to propose a rather depressing metaphor for an argument that letting anyone into one's life inevitably makes it unravel in tragedy, pain and death. With so many questions unanswered, the bleak ending of the film seems mostly just unpleasant. For some reason the family has a famous Pieter Brueghel the Elder painting (The Triumph of Death) hanging on one of their walls, and in the beginning we inspect this with the camera as if it contained an insight into the film itself. It Comes at Night does not live up to its hype, as it is too complacent and deprived of drive and frights, with way too much in it simply blowing in the wind.
Cost: 5 mil. $ Box office: 12 mil. $ and counting = Too early to say [It Comes at Night premiered 29 April (Overlook Film Festival, Oregon) and runs 91 minutes. Shooting took place in August 2016 in New York. It opened #6 to a 5.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America. It Comes at Night is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of It Comes at Night?
Newcomer-star Katie Jarvis looks out on the world in a contemplative mood on this poster for Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank
We follow Mia: She's a 15 year-old girl, who has been expelled from school and has a dream of becoming a dancer. She lives with her single mother and little sister and finds a temporary father figure in her mother's latest boyfriend. Fish Tank is great English writer-director Andrea Arnold's (Red Road (2006)) second feature; it is a story of a home with a mother who has almost nothing to offer her children, so they in turn suffer for it and become petty violent, sometimes undisciplined brats in her parental absence. But of course they are more than that. The film focuses on Mia and features eminent performances from debuting Katie Jarvis (Suspects (2014), TV-series) as Mia and Michael Fassbender (Our Hidden Lives (2005), TV movie) as the sympathetic asshole boyfriend. SPOILER As things escalate in Fish Tank, we find ourselves wholly on Mia's side, as we creep to the edge of our seats, thinking 'no, no, no!' Shot with great skill digitally by Robbie Ryan (American Honey (2016)) and reduced to fit the 4:3 format, only a few shots in near-darkness don't completely work. Fish Tank is a really terrific film that also has a touching ending. It portrays a young woman's slowly arriving to the real world and some sobering truths about it.
Cost: 3 mil. $ Box office: 2.4 mil. $ = Huge flop [Fish Tank premiered 14 May (Cannes) and runs 123 minutes. Jarvis was spotted having a fight with her boyfriend at a train station by the film's casting director and thereafter involved in the film. Shooting took place in England, including in London, from July - August 2008. Jarvis became pregnant with her first child during shooting and gave birth on 9 May 2009. Each week, the cast were given the script to what was to be shot the following week in order for most of the progress of the story to remain unknown for them through filming. The film opened #46 in 2 theaters to a 25k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #44 and in 15 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 374k $ (15.6 % of the total gross), the film's 2nd biggest market. The biggest market was France with 492k $ (20.5 %) and third biggest was Sweden with 348k $ (14.5 %). The film won a BAFTA, an AFI award, 2 British Independent Film Awards out of 8 nominations, the Cannes Jury Prize, 3 European Film Award nominations, a National Board of Review award and many more. Fish Tank is certified fresh at 91 % with a 7.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Fish Tank?
This poster for Olatunde Osunsanmi's The Fourth Kind educates the average Joe Schmo as to the meaning of its title
A series of patients all tell their psychologist of experiences with freakish owls. People start disappearing, soon also levitating! - Something is very wrong in Nome, Alaska. The Fourth Kind is a found footage turkey of epic proportions: It is complete in its ineptness, which, at the film's best moments, is sort of amusing. It mixes what it insists are true recordings (don't believe it) with dramatizations in which it reminds us continually of the actors' names, which is a fairly idiotic ploy. Especially since it is backed up here by a barrage of incompetence in the fields of acting as well as the technical and visual side of the film. There are also not really any effects in The Fourth Kind that might redeem it in some way. The Fourth Kind is written and directed by American Olatunde Osunsanmi (Bates Motel (2016-17)), whose second feature it is, with Terry Robbins (The Cavern (2005)) contributing story elements. It does not seem to be based on anything real in relation to its alien diagnosis of a community that it misrepresents; the only authentic element in the film is its use of names of actually deceased people, which qualifies The Fourth Kind as morally reprehensible, besides being just plain awful. Its title is inspired by the delineations of alien contact as defined by 'UFO professor' J. Allen Hynek. Osunsanmi also acts in the film, portraying a tired journalist. The Fourth Kind is insanely stupid.
Cost: 10 mil. $ Box office: 47.7 mil. $ = Big hit [The Fourth Kind premiered 24 October (Screamfest Festival, Hollywood) and runs 98 minutes. The screenplay was on the 2008 Blcklst, a list of the most liked unproduced scripts in Hollywood. Shooting took place in Bulgaria, including capital Sofia, in California and in British Columbia, Canada. The film opened #4, behind new release A Christmas Carrol, holdover hit Michael Jackson's This Is It and new release The Men Who Stare at Goats, to a 12.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell from the top 5 in its second week and grossed 25.4 mil. $ (53.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 5 mil. $ (10.5 %) and the UK with 3.7 mil. $ (7.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 1½ stars, translating to a notch better than this review. Nome, Alaska residents were angered by their representation in the film, and Universal paid 20+k $ in a settlement with the angered Alaska news outlets that its marketing misrepresented. The Fourth Kind is rotten at 19 % with a 4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of The Fourth Kind?
Cost: 40 mil. $ Box office: 46.4 mil. $ = Big flop [Fantastic Mr. Fox premiered 14 October (London Film Festival) and runs 86 minutes. Development began in 2004 at the later defunct Revolution Studios with Anderson and Henry Selick, who later exited to commit to (the much better) Coraline (2009). Cate Blanchett was also committed to voice a character but dropped out. Fantastic Mr. Fox is Anderson's only adaptation and animation to date. Animation was captured in the Three Mills Studio in London, while Anderson captured the star-studded voice performances outside of a studio; reportedly in a forest, an attic, a stable and underground. The film opened #24 in 4 theaters, a fierce 66k $ per theater average, to a 265k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #9 on 2,033 screens and grossed 21 mil. $ (45.3 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Dahl's native UK with 14.3 mil. $ (30.9 %) and Australia with 3.4 mil. $ (7.3 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Score (Alexandre Desplat) - lost to Michael Giacchino for Up, - and Best Animation - also lost to Pete Docter's Up. The film was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, a BAFTA, won a National Board of Review award and many more. Fantastic Mr. Fox is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Fantastic Mr. Fox?
