Gosford Park (2001) - Smith triumphs in Altman & Fellowes' exquisite whodunit

♥♥♥♥

Scarlet roses and a menu attached to a waiter's backside with the title, tagline and impressive list of stars make up this inviting poster for Robert Altman's Gosford Park

A British family patriarch invites to a grand hunting weekend in 1930s upper class England. The family and their servants cultivate etiquette, gossip and viciousness as usual. But then a murder occurs!...

Gosford Park is written by Julian Fellowes (Romeo and Juliet (2013)), based on an idea by co-producer/co-star Bob Balaban (The Last Good Time (1994)) and co-producer and Missourian master filmmaker Robert Altman (The Delinquents (1957)), whose 33rd feature it was.
It is a wonderful multi-character film with a terrific ensemble of whom especially Maggie Smith (Keeping Mum (2005)) and Kelly Macdonald (Finding Neverland (2004)) impress. Smith is tart and incredibly funny here.
Altman serves the whodunit in a breezy style without giving the misdeed more room than is necessary.
The British social reservation that's integral to Gosford Park may affect my own feelings about it a bit to the cool side, but it is certainly still a splendid picture.

Related post:

Robert Altman: The Company (2003) - Campbell, Turner and Altman's fine ballet picture

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 19.8 mil. $
Box office: 87.7 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.42 times its cost)
[Gosford Park premiered 7 November (London Film Festival) and runs 137 minutes. Balaban asked Altman if they could develop a film together in 1999, and upon Altman's response of an Agatha Christie-like whodunit introduced him to Fellowes. Shooting took place in England from March 2001 - ?. Filming took place with two cameras perpetually moving in opposite directions, forcing all actors to stay in character throughout every scene, all of which has at least one servant in them. The film opened #23 to a 241k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #9 and in 918 theaters (different weeks), grossing 41.3 mil. $ (47.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 17.1 mil. $ (19.5 %) and Australia with 4.5 mil. $ (5.1 %). It was Altman's most commercially successful film, following MASH (1970). The film was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning for Best Screenplay. It lost Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Smith and Helen Mirren) to Jennifer Connelly, Director to Ron Howard, all for A Beautiful Mind, and Art/Set Decoration and Costume Design to Moulin Rouge!. It won 1/5 Golden Globe nominations, 2/9 BAFTAs, 1/4 AFI award nominations, was nominated for a César award, 3 European Film awards and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Fellowes was inspired by the film to create his hit-series Downton Abbey (2010-15). Altman returned with The Company (2003). Smith returned in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002); Macdonald in Brush with Fate (2003, TV movie), State of Play (2003, miniseries) and theatrically in Intermission (2003). Gosford Park is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.51/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gosford Park?

Halloween Movie 2019: Altered States (1980) or, Reversed Darwinism

♥♥♥♥♥

The at the time unknown star (William Hurt) is upside down on this mysterious, text-heavy poster for Ken Russell's Altered States

Edward Jessup is an experimental psychology professor, who gambles with his own mental constitution to investigate the human consciousness using an isolation tank and Mexican mushrooms!

Altered States is written by Paddy Chayefsky (Mati (1958, TV movie)), based on his own same-titled 1978 novel, and directed by English master filmmaker Ken Russell (Valentino (1977).
Feature-debuting William Hurt (Mr. Wonderful (1993)) is unique in maybe his career's best performance: In Altered States he expresses madness in galloping speed, while he spouts coherent, complex dialog, which seems to conflict troublingly with his madness.
Bob Balaban (Thin Ice (2011)) and Charles Haid (The Rescue (1988)) are good as his experimental mates, and Blair Brown (Fringe (2008-12)) is strong and sexy in the good part as Hurt's increasingly broken romantic companion.
Chayevsky and Russell keep the film stringent and and anything but flaky plot-wise, although we get into something really strange and bizarre here!
An American Werewolf in London (1981) has a predecessor in the special effects department in Altered States, which also recalls the body horror excess of David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986), a film that Altered States transcends intellectually.
The psychedelic sensual bombardment created by Russell and Co. is more out there and hypnotic - as well as upsetting - than any such sequence I have seen anywhere else before; and I haven't seen anything to rival it until Gaspar Noé's nightmarish Enter the Void (2009).
Altered States is a completely wild, intense and attention-demanding picture; it stands as the ultimate horror movie for atheist science freaks: SPOILER Human degeneration back into the simian stage, in this perspective, is the logical, horrific descent to hell.

Related posts:

Ken Russell: Top 10: Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Past Halloween Movies: Halloween Movie 2018: Misery (1990) - Bates ignites an iconic villain in Reiner's rock-solid King adaptation
Halloween Movie 2017: Candyman (1992) - Racial tensions inform Rose and Barker's Chicago-set horror favorite 

Watch a 1-minute clip from one of the film's psychedelic scenes here

Cost: 14.9 mil. $
Box office: 19.8 mil. $ (North America alone)
= Some uncertainty; most likely a big flop or flop (returned 1.32 times its cost domestically)
[Altered States was released 25 December (USA) and runs 103 minutes. Chayefsky had formed the idea after a gathering of "disgruntled" friends in 1975. Columbia Pictures producer Daniel Melnick suggested that he turn the treatment into a novel first. Arthur Penn was director through pre-production but resigned after a disagreement with Chayefsky. Russell was allegedly director #27 asked to take up the film, following numerous big filmmakers who had passed. The budget ballooned from 9 to 12 to the final 14.9 mil. $ during production - with 4 mil. $ alone going to special effects. Shooting took place in Mexico, New York, Boston, Massachusetts, Kentucky and California, including Los Angeles, from March 1979 - ?. Chayefsky budded into production too much, causing a conflict with Russell, which led to Chayefsky demanding his usual pen name be removed from the film; instead his birth first name and middle name are used (Sidney Aaron). The film opened to a 174k $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 19.8 mil. $, - impressive for such an unusual and wild movie. The foreign grosses are regrettably not made public online, but if the film made 25 mil. $ total, it would still rank as a big flop. It was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Score (John Corigliano (Revolution (1985))), lost to Michael Gore for Fame, and Best Sound, lost to Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Russell returned with The Planets (1983, TV documentary), The South Bank Show (1984, documentary TV-series) and theatrically with Crimes of Passion (1984). Hurt returned in Eyewitness (1981); Balaban in Prince of the City (1981); Haid in Pray TV (1981) and Brown in Continental Divide (1981). Altered States is certified fresh at 84 % with a 6.81/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Altered States?

Girl Most Likely/Imogene (2012) - Wiig is great as another dysfunctional woman in Berman & Pulcini's unfocused fare

♥♥♥

+ Worst Poster of the Year
 

The sorriest poster of 2012 to be sure, this pink-hued thing for Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman's Girl Most Likely with miserable-looking Kristen Wiig and Darren Criss win Film Excess' Worst Poster of the Year

Imogene is a teetering middle-aged woman in New York, who loses her shallow boyfriend, her shallow friends and her magazine job and then stages a suicide attempt that she hopes will solve all of her problems. Instead, it gets her home to live with her problematic mother and brother.

I really looked forward to Girl Most Likely, based on its funny trailer and the good people involved, its star Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids (2011)) first and foremost. Wiig is really good in the film, and she makes it float as an enjoyable escapade, but she and the other actors cannot hide the fact that it's script and concept is half-baked at best. Michelle Morgan (Middle of Nowhere (2008)) is the responsible writer. In my opinion, it needed a serious core and more of a sense of general direction (the meaning of the title, for instance, never comes into play, (and was also first picked after the first screening in Toronto under the film's inauspicious working title Imogene.)) The persistent quirkiness of the characters instead come off as a little forced, which is a shame. A much better film was hiding somewhere in this material, I think.

Girl Most Likely does have some laughs, and its other notable players worth mentioning favorably include Bob Balaban (Ghost World (2001)) and charming young Darren Criss (Glee (2010-15)) as Wiig's love interest.

The change of title after its release indicates a generally unfocused film, unfortunately, which isn't among the most successful from its directing couple Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who have previously delighted especially with their quaint masterpiece The Extra Man (2010). They are now in post with Ten Thousand Saints (2015) a drama with Asa Butterfield, Ethan Hawke, Hailee Steinfeld, Emile Hirsch and others.

Related posts:

Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
American Splendor (2003) or, Happily Unhappy Together

Another better but still thoroughly bad poster for Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's Girl Most Likely

And a third ... Wiig looks nice, but this can hardly even be called a poster

Watch the hilarious trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 1.3 mil. $ (US only)

= Some uncertainty although almost certainly a big flop

[Girl Most Likely may have been made for a scant budget of up to 5 mil. $, but that would still make it an very big flop. Its star and genre make it best suited for its home market, where it didn't catch any fire, and it has only had cinematic releases in 13 other countries worldwide. Some of its failure undoubtedly can be attributed to its really awful posters.]

What do you think of Girl Most Likely?

What is your favorite Kristen Wiig-moment in anything she has done so far?

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - A 1960's island youth romance present

♥♥♥♥♥

Partly painted poster of the kids in their nature-adventure in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom

QUICK REVIEW:

A former scout flees from home with a same-aged girl on their birth island, where they are quickly searched for by worried parents, authorities and an evil child care woman. - But a fierce storm is also on its way!

Moonrise Kingdom is a mighty enjoyable, classically inventive Wes Anderson (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)) yarn, set in a charming island community.
I love the Bob Balaban (Ghost World (2001)) character and all of his odd, small introductions throughout. The escaping youths, played by debuting actors Jared Gilman (Elsa & Fred (2014)) and Kara Hayward (Quitters (2014)), are sweet, and, as usual, Anderson here has an ensemble cast at his hands that is impressive and very good: Edward Norton (American History X (1998)), Harvey Keitel (Smoke (1995)), Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)), Bruce Willis (Die Hard (1988)), Frances McDormand (Fargo (1996)) and Bill Murray (Groundhog Day (1993)).
The film also features lovely music, - quite a few old Hank Williams songs, - but one notices its wild pace as hasty a few times, where it seems to inhibit any chance of deeper emotional involvement in the characters and story, which I think is a shame.
On the whole though, Moonrise Kingdom is still an incredible and very good film.

Related review:

Wes Anderson: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - A very very good dream

Notice especially on this delightful character photo for Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom Bob Balaban on the left in the red coat

Watch the stylish, colorful, eye-candy-studded trailer here

Cost: 16 mil. $
Box office: 68.2 mil. $
= Big hit
[Moonrise Kingdom opened Cannes 2012, where it was shown in competition, and it went on to have an excellent American run over the following Summer, where its very American story may have struck a chord that not all of Anderson's pictures have done in the past. It was later Oscar-nominated for Best Original Screenplay (Anderson and Roman Coppola (The Darjeeling Limited (2007)), but lost to Quentin Tarantino and his Django Unchained (2012)).]

What do you think of Moonrise Kingdom?
What is your favorite Anderson-movie and why?

Capote (2005) - The writing of one of the 20th century's finest non-fiction crime novels comes to life

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Biopic of the Year

Gorgeously colored poster for Bennett Miller's Capote

QUICK REVIEW:

In Capote, we follow the New York socialite author Truman Capote's (Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958)) journey to the middle of nowhere, Kansas, and his 4 year long involvement with a quadruple murder case and especially one of the imprisoned murderers, Perry Smith.
Capote is a masterly told crime biopic drama about a very exciting period of a very unusual, American writer's life. Philip Seymour Hoffman (A Most Wanted Man (2014)), - winning his only Oscar for the part, - is perfect in the title lead and gets solid support, especially from Clifton Collins Jr. (Pacific Rim (2013)) as Perry, but also from Oscar-nominated Catherine Keener (Begin Again (2013)) and Chris Cooper (American Beauty (1999)).
Only the somewhat unrefined alternation between cold images and preemptive pathos in the film's beginning seemed less auspicious to me. But a very strong film nonetheless, directed by Bennett Miller (Moneyball (2011)), whose coming film Foxcatcher (2014) is attracting quite a lot of buzz.

 

Related post:

 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 49.2 mil. $
= Huge hit
['Sleeper' hit with a long American run (October 2005-April 2006), fueled by outstanding reviews and Oscar-attention; good reception overseas as well, (US box office only accounts for 28.7 mil. $ of the total gross.)]

What do you think of Capote?
Other films of condemned men that you can recommend?