Hostiles (2017) - Mighty western goes awry for Cooper

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Similarities, hostilities, black and white notions ... are indicated as thematic material on this poster for Scott Cooper's Hostiles

An Indian-hating army captain gets as assignment to lead a Cheyenne chief and his family through dangerous terrain in order for them to be set free. But on the way they meet a victim from a massacre.

 

Hostiles is written by Donald E. Stewart (Missing (1982)) and co-writer/co-producer/director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart (2009)).

The film stays gripping and very promising for a long time for a western-lover. Christian Bale (Knight of Cups (2015)) is good as the hard, bearded captain, and the scenery is outstandingly handsome. Cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi's (Black Mass (2015)) images beautifully capture the magic of the West's wide open spaces.

The more disappointing it gets when the film keels over into pompous self-seriousness, since Cooper now wants to strike home a point about racism and the negativity of violence: SPOILER By letting Bale (and Rosamund Pike (Radioactive (2019)) as the woman who loses her family to the Indians) risk their lives for the Cheyenne family, whom they now feel as bodyguards for! That is not credible, and the film becomes overlong to boot, ultimately a disappointment.

 

Related posts:


Scott Cooper: 2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

Crazy Heart (2009) or, The Weary Kind

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 39 mil. $

Box office: 35.6 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.91 times its cost)

[Hostiles premiered 2 September (Telluride Film Festival) and runs 133 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 2016 in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The film opened #36 to a 22k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #3 and in 2,934 theaters (different weeks), grossing 29.8 mil. $ (83.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 2.9 mil. $ (8.1 %) and the UK with 1 mil. $ (2.8 %). Cooper returned with Antlers (2021). Bale returned with a voice performance in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018, VoD) and theatrically in Vice (2018); Wes Studi (A Love Song (2022)) in A Dog's Way Home (2019); and Pike in Beirut (2018). Hostiles is fresh at 70 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hostiles?

The Handmaiden/아가씨 (Agassi) (2016) - Get older slowly with Chan-wook's overrated softcore art cinema

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A mix of alliances and power lines criss-cross on this poster for Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden

A new handmaiden with an innocent face gets hired by an aristocratic woman in Japanese colonized Korea, but behind her face lies a deceitful mission. Nevertheless the desires of the two get in the way.

The Handmaiden is written by Chung Seo-kyung (Lady Vengeance/Chinjeolhan geumjassi (2005)) and co-writer/co-producer/director Park Chan-wook (Daleun... haega kkuneun kkum (1992)). It is a loose adaptation of Fingersmith (2002) by Sarah Waters (Tipping the Velvet (1998). The original Korean title translates to 'the lady'.

Again I fail to connect with a work of Chan-wook's, whom I seem to just not understand or whom I perhaps just don't share sensibilities with. The Handmaiden strikes me as a luxuriously produced and high-brow round of respectable soft-core lesbian art cinema porn. It is filled with mouth-smacking sounds and dialog about vulvas, - it is obsessed with the female genitals and BDSM, - and it bores me to death. It is unbearably neatly made, with 'advanced' twists galore, which bespectacled cinephile audiences gorge on and celebrate as modern cinema art (but is more accurately described as modern 'naughty' exoticism.) The knotty plot here rolls out of my disinterested hands.

The film is undeniably artistically photographed (by Chung-hoon Chung (Last Night in Soho (2021))) but the point gets lost in the unknown. And The Handmaiden is also way, way overlong.

 

Related posts:

Park Chan-wook: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Stoker (2013) - Chan-wook Park's over-styled American debut revolts and bores in turns  

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  

Oldboy/올드보이 (Oldeuboi)(2003) or, Nuts in South Korea

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly approximately 8.8 mil. $

Box office: 38.5 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.37 times its cost)

[The Handmaiden premiered 14 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 144 minutes. Shooting took place from June - October 2015 in South Korea and Japan. The film opened #39 to a 92k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #21 and in 123 theaters (different weekends), grossing 2 mil. $ (5.2 %). The film's biggest market was South Korea with 32.9 mil. $ (85.5 %). North America was the 2nd biggest, and France was the 3rd biggest with 1.9 mil. $ (4.9 %). The film won the Palme d'Or in Cannes, a BAFTA, a National Board of Review award, among tons of other honors. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #239 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Rebecca (1940) and Cool Hand Luke (1967). Chan-wook returned with The Little Drummer Girl (2018, miniseries), Life Is But A Dream (2022, short) and theatrically with Decision to Leave/Heojil kyolshim (2022). The Handmaiden is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Handmaiden?

Halloween (2018) - Great-looking mayhem

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Franchise star Jamie Lee Curtis returns to 'face her fate' - the scarred, menacing mask of her brother Michael Myers, on this dark poster for David Gordon Green's Halloween

40 years after the murders in Haddonfield, Illinois: Survivor Laurie Strode has become a strange hermit living in a kind of fortress, as her mass-murderer brother Michael Myers breaks free from a prisoner transport - right before Halloween ...

 

Halloween is written by Jeff Fradley (Vice Principals (2016-17)), Danny McBride (Your Highness (2011)) and co-writer/director, Arkansan master filmmaker David Gordon Green (George Washington (2000)), whose 13th feature it is. It is the 11th film in the Halloween franchise and a sequel to the original Halloween (1978), which ignores all the following sequels and reboot. 

The film succeeds in giving the languishing franchise a strong dose of fresh juice. The murders are many - really many! The look is dark and deeply professionally done. But the scares are not as palpable for a horror veteran. Perhaps Jamie Lee Curtis' (Virus (1999)) Laurie Strode has become too militant, and everyone else on the contrary, too easily kill-able?

Halloween is highly brutal and has a strong ending. My favorite part, however, was the new score by John Carpenter (Escape from New York (1981)), Cody Carpenter (Masters of Horror (2005-06)) and Daniel A. Davies (Condemned (2015)), which is built around Carpenter's original score and is awesome.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - Myers returns to turkeyville 

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - Precious few cuts from rock bottom 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

David Gordon Green: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess

The Sitter (2011) - Green and Hill's inappropriate babysitter movie is a crude hoot 

Your Highness (2011) - Green's dismissed, golden stoner/raunch adventure comedy

George Washington (2000) - Green's evocative North Carolina youth debut masterpiece 

 

 

Watch a teaser trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 10 mil. $

Box office: 259.9 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 25.59 times its cost)

[Halloween premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place from January - February 2018 in South Carolina, with re-shoots in June 2018. The film opened #1 to a 76.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and another one in the Top 5 (#5), grossing 159.3 mil. $ (61.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 12.4 mil. $ (4.8 %) and the UK with 11.5 mil. $ (4.4 %). Universal reportedly spent 75.5 mil. $ marketing the film. The film was followed by 2 more in Green's Halloween trilogy; Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022), both with Curtis as well. Before Halloween Kills Green returned with Dickinson (2019, TV-series) and Mythic Quest (2020, TV-series). Curtis first returned in An Acceptable Loss (2018). Halloween is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween? 

Top 10: Best gay-themed titles

 

 

1. Farewell My Concubine/霸王別姬/Bàwáng Bié Jī (1993) - Chen Kaige

 

 

2. Carol (2015) - Todd Haynes

 

 

3. Call Me By Your Name (2017) - Luca Guadagnino

 

 

4. Heartstone/Hjartasteinn (2016) - Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson

 

 

5. Looking - season 2 (2015) - Michael Lannan 

 

 

6. Happy Together/春光乍洩 (Chun gwong cha sit) (1997) - Wong Kar-Wai

 

 

7. The Way He Looks/Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (2014) - Daniel Ribeiro  

8. Moonlight (2016) - Barry Jenkins

 

9. Philadelphia (1993) - Jonathan Demme

 

 

10. Boys Don't Cry (1999) - Kimberly Peirce  

Selected from 92 titles labeled 'gay romance', 'gay themes' and 'gay villain'

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date        
Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date         
Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best Disney movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best documentaries reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best dramas reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  

Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best family movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best films about filmmaking 

Best first-of-franchise movies 

Top 10: Best 'flop' rank movies

Best Twentieth Century Fox titles 

Best French movies

Best franchise movies 

Best future-set movies 

Best gangster movies

What do you think of the list?
Which gay-themed films would make your personal Top 10?

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) - The Coen's satirical firecracker mega-flop

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+ Best Mega-flop of the Year + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 20.48 mil. $ range + Best Satire of the Year + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.45

Tim Robbins is holding a Hoola-hoop on this greyish-white poster for Ethan and Joel Coen's The Hudsucker Proxy

New York's Hudsucker Industries lose their CEO, when things are going their very best. The company's bylaws dictate a watering down of the company's wealth, but a member of the board comes up with a plan to manipulate the prize down for a while and avoid the risk: Hiring an impossible imbecile as the new CEO.

 

The Hudsucker Proxy is written by Sam Raimi (Drag Me to Hell (2009)) and Minnesotan master filmmaker brothers, co-writer/producer Ethan Coen and co-writer/director Joel Coen, (Blood Simple (1984), both) whose 5th feature it is.

Visually astounding, energetic and a fun period satire, The Hudsucker Proxy is too wacky to really say something of import, but it is tremendously entertaining and imaginative nonetheless. Roger Deakins' (In Time (2011)) photography is a pleasure.

Tim Robbins (The Spoils of Babylon (2014, TV-series)) is at times taxing as the ridiculous buffoon, who is new to the big city and goes from mail room job to the CEO's seat, (but also invents the Hoola-hoop.) Jennifer Jason Leigh (Annihilation (2018)) is uncharacteristically grey and hard as granite. Paul Newman (Twilight (1998)) is excellent.

 

Related posts:

Ethan and Joel Coen: Hail, Caesar! (2016) - The Coen brothers serve a whimsical, flashy letdown
Unbroken (2014) - Despite good elements, Jolie's Grand WWII Biopic is mostly distant and weak (co-writers)

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI] 

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) or, The Man Who Wasn't Dylan  
True Grit (2010) - The Coens' grand western present

Top 10: Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
A Serious Man (2009) - One of the Coens' best; a philo-religious serio-comedy
Burn After Reading (2008) or, Idiocy 2008

No Country for Old Men (2007) - Undigestible McCarthy adaptation lets you hang in midair 

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) - Much to love in fabulous Coen music yarn 
Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
The Big Lebowski (1998) - The stoner comedy to reign over all

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Fargo (1996) - The Coen brothers make movie magic with dark-humored crime thriller 

1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Top 10: Best films about filmmaking 
Barton Fink (1991) or, The Writer's Hell

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 11.3 mil. $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.45 times its cost)

[The Hudsucker Proxy premiered 27 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 111 minutes. The Coen's met Raimi and worked on his Evil Dead (1981), at which point they began working on the script, which was finished in 1985. Filming had to wait some years longer, until they were trusted with a sizable budget. Shooting took place from November 1992 - March 1993 in North Carolina and Chicago, Illinois. The film opened #22 to a 104k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it grossed 2.8 mil. $ (25.5 % of the total gross). It did better abroad but still made far less business than was needed. A further 15 mil. $ were reportedly spent marketing the film. It competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, lost to Pulp Fiction. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. The Coen brothers returned with Fargo (1996). Robbins returned in The Shawshank Redemption (1994); Leigh in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994); and Newman in Nobody's Fool (1994). The Hudsucker Proxy is fresh at 60 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Hudsucker Proxy?

The Heiress (1949) - De Havilland triumphs in sensational Wyler adaptation

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A moment of intense rapture is depicted on this elegant poster for William Wyler's The Heiress

An old maid in New York in the 1840s with a rich father is suddenly courted by a beautiful, younger man, and she is unwilling to share her father's skeptic feelings as to the man's true intentions ...

 

The Heiress is written by Augustus and Ruth Goetz (Carrie (1952), both), adapting their own same-titled play, which was an adaptation of Washington Square (1880) by Henry James (Confidence (1879)), and directed by German-born American master filmmaker, producer/director William Wyler (Lazy Lightning (1926)), whose 33rd feature it was.

Ideally adapted, elegantly photographed (by Leo Tover (From the Terrace (1960))) and scored with Aaron Copland's (The Red Pony (1949)) mighty compositions. The heavy patriarchy of its time is a part of the portrait, but the story reaches deeper than this. 

Olivia de Havilland (The Swarm (1978)) transforms her character credibly in a truly great performance. Montgomery Clift (A Place in the Sun (1951)) is also outstanding SPOILER as the alluring charlatan, and Ralph Richardson (Jesus of Nazareth (1977, miniseries)) is complete perfection as her coolly affectionate, guiding father.

 

Related posts:

William Wyler: How to Steal a Million (1966) - Wyler and stars win with Paris-set cinematic cream puff 

Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Ben-Hur (1959) - Perhaps the greatest epic film of all time
The Big Country (1958) - A big western gift  

The Desperate Hours (1955) - Wyler's top-drawer true-crime home-invasion thriller 

Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Top 10: The best adventure films reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Roman Holiday (1953) - Wyler takes us to marvelous Rome on an unforgettable romantic adventure 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2.6 mil. $

Box office: 2.3 mil. $ (North-American rentals only)

= Uncertain

[The Heiress premiered 6 October (New York) and runs 115 minutes. De Havilland brought the play to Wyler's attention after seeing it on Broadway. The Goetz couple were paid 250k $ for the play rights plus 10k $ a week for writing the screenplay. Clift was paid 100k $ for his performance. Shooting took place from June - September 1948 in Los Angeles, California. The film was considered a box office flop due to its 2.3 mil. $ domestic gross, - regrettably the foreign gross numbers have not been made public and without these the film's theatrical status cannot be declared. The film was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 4: Best Actess (De Havilland), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration - Black-and-White, Costume Design - Black-and-White and Score - Drama/Comedy. It lost Best Supporting Actor (Richardson) to Dean Jagger for Twelve O'Clock High, Cinematography - Black-and-White to Paul Vogel for Battleground, Director to Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives and Picture to All the King's Men. It also won 1/3 Golden Globe nominations and 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Wyler returned with Detective Story (1951). De Havilland returned in My Cousin Rachel (1952); Clift in The Big Lift (1950); and Richardson in Outcast of the Islands (1951). The Heiress is fresh at 100 % with an 8.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Heiress?