Precious (2009) - Overcoming adversity showcased in gripping drama

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+ Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Most Deserved Hit of the Year

 

New-comer Gabourey Sidibe in the title role wears a crown and butterfly wings on this poster for Lee Daniels' Precious

Precious doesn't have an enviable life: She's 16 years old; her weight is that of a small elephant; she's pregnant for the second time in her life; and the child is her own father's.

 

Precious is written by Geoffrey Fletcher (Violet & Daisy (2011)), based on the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire (The Kid (2011)), and co-produced and directed by great Pennsylvanian filmmaker Lee Daniels (Shadowboxer (2005)).

The girl's mother is one of the meanest, ugliest characters to go down in cinema history, played eminently by Mo'Nique (Blackbird (2014)). Gabourey Sidibe (Antebellum (2020)) is terrific too, as are other female actors in Precious: Paula Patton (Warcraft (2016)) is beautiful and excellent. The dream sequences make us 100 % aligned with the trialed teenager and her dreams of escape. Despite the grim realities, this is also a film with hope, even though I could have wished for that extra little oomph in the ending.

Precious is hard to forget. It puts things in perspective. It is a beautiful and fantastic film. 

 

Related posts:

Lee Daniels: 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] 

The Butler/Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) - Whitaker and Winfrey shine in Dainels' cathartic, insightful historic drama 
The Paperboy (2012) - Daniels' off-putting and interesting Florida-yarn huffs and puffs

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

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 10 mil.  $

Box office: 63.6 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 6.36 times its cost)

[Precious premiered 16 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 110 minutes. Shooting took place from October 2007 - January 2008 in New York. The film opened #12 to a 1.8 mil. $ first weekend in 18 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #3 and in 1,003 theaters (different weeks), grossing 47.5 mil. $ (74.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 2.7 mil. $ (4.2 %) and the UK with 1.9 mil. $ (3 %). The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning for Best Supporting Actress (Mo'Nique) and Adapted Screenplay. It lost Best Picture to The Hurt Locker, Actress to Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, Director to Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker and Editing also to The Hurt Locker. It also won 1/4 BAFTA nominations, 1/3 Golden Globe nominations, 5 Independent Spirit awards, an AFI award and a National Board of Review award, among countless other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The film sold more than 1.5 mil. DVD's in its first week of release in North America. Daniels returned with The Paperboy (2012). Sidibe returned in Yelling to the Sky (2011); Mo'Nique in Steppin: The Movie (2009). Precious is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Precious?

The Science of Sleep/La Science des Rêves (2006) - Good ideas buried in taxing whimsy, off romance

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+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year

A deliciously made, evocative, dreamscape-depicting poster for Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep

Stéphane gets a job at an office that makes calenders, and he falls in love with his neighbor, who refuses his advances and is very troublesome.

The Science of Sleep is written and directed by great French filmmaker Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)), based on a bedtime story written by 10 year-old Sam Mounier.
Gael García Bernal (Babel (2006)) acts about as childishly as an actor can here, playing a character with a hard-to-believe, silly job across from Charlotte Gainsbourg (Nuremberg (2000, miniseries)), who is unattractive as the inexplicable object of his enamorment in this highly eccentric, goofy film.
The Science of Sleep has a few funny moments and ideas that it wins on for me. But overall it is a fairly taxing experience, because it is just too much, an accumulated feeling of too much overwhelms me when watching it. It awakens my private Franco-phobia, which beats red with much higher alarm at a cutesy whimsical French romance film like Amélie (2001). But The Science of Sleep is similarly unbearable for me.

Related posts:

Michel Gondry: Be Kind Rewind (2008) - Black and Def gleefully remake videos in Gondry's unsound script 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 15 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.5 times its cost)
[The Science of Sleep premiered 11 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place in France, including Paris. The film opened #25 to a 347k $ first weekend in 14 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #15 and in 243 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 4.6 mil. $ (30.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 3.7 mil. $ (24.7 %) and the UK with 1.2 mil. $ (8 %). The film won a European Film award. Gondry returned with 8 short and video projects before his next theatrical engagement with Be Kind Rewind (2008). Bernal returned in Soy tu Fan (2006, ministeries) and theatrically in Babel (2006); Gainsbourg in Golden Door/Nuovomondo (2006). The Science of Sleep is fresh at 70 % with a 6.62/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Science of Sleep?

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) - Remarkable visuals and Goldenthal's score elevate trailblazing adaptation

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Enticingly colorful characters fill out the top letters on this anticipation-building poster for Hironobu Sakaguchi and Motonori Sakakibara's Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Scientist Aki Ross carries an alien virus within herself, which gives her some frightening dreams. She lives on Earth after an alien attack, where humans battle the ghostly phantom aliens. 

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is written by Al Reinert (Apollo 13 (1995)) and Jeff Vintar (I, Robot (2004)) with Jack Fletcher (Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)) supplying dialog and debuting co-director Hironobu Sakaguchi contributing story elements. It is based on Sakaguchi's popular Final Fantasy series of video games and was co-directed with also debuting Motonori Sakakibara (Rudolf the Black Cat/Rudorufu to ippai attena (2016)). It is notable as the first photorealistic computer-animated feature film.
The plot is fairly abstract and to some degree most appealing to the initiated computer nerds, who are already privy to Sakaguchi's sci-fi universe. However, the film's visual side is so overwhelmingly beautiful, - particularly the dreams and alien attacks, - and Elliot Goldenthal's (Heat (1995)) score is so atmospheric, - that as audiences, Final Fantasy transports us to a world of fantasy regardlessly.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 137 mil. $
Box office: 85.1 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.62 times its cost)
[Final Fantasy premiered 2 July (USA) and runs 106 minutes. The film was the most expensive computer game adaptation until Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010): 45 mil. $ was spent to construct the almost 1,000 computer 'render farm' in Hawaii, which was used to create and render the unprecedented amount of computer-animated details required. Reportedly, 200 people worked for 4 years to create the film there. Special care went into the creation of lead Aki Ross, who was thought to become the world's first computer-animated star actress, 'performing' in other films following Final Fantasy, (this did not materialize, - although she did get to adorn a cover of Maxim in a purple bikini, named one of the year's 100 sexiest women.) The film opened #4, behind fellow new releases Legally Blonde and The Score and holdover hit Cats & Dogs, to an 11.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 32.1 mil. $ (37.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 7.4 mil. $ (8.7 %) and Germany with 5.8 mil. $ (6.8 %). Some sources say that the 137 mil. $ price tag includes Columbia Pictures' 30 mil. $ spent on advertising and distributing the film, although it also says that the production costs were 115 mil. $, - which would then bring the combined cost at 145 mil. $, - so in the confusion I am going by the ballooned 137 mil. $ production cost (as appears on Box Office Mojo and Wikipedia). The flop of the film turned Square Pictures out of business. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. The film made in excess of 26.6 mil. $ on home video rentals in North America alone, - not enough to change its 'huge flop' status if figured into the calibration. Sakaguchi has not returned to filmmaking since; Sakakibara returned as supervising director on 1 episode of King: King of the Apes (2016-) and theatrically with Rudolf the Black Cat (2016). Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is rotten at 45 % with a 5.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within?

Twixt (2011) - Coppola's dreamlike Gothic is a late-night gem

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Elle Fanning as a seductive Goth girl on the poster for Francis Ford Coppola's Twixt

 

A decrepit horror writer stops as part of his book tour in a small town, whose sheriff introduces him to a macabre case there.

 

Val Kilmer (Alexander (2004)) and Bruce Dern (World Gone Wild (1987)) are both good as the writer and the sheriff in this weird, often quite funny gem. Ben Chaplin (Chromophobia (2005)) is also good, portraying legendary master writer Edgar Allan Poe.

Stylistically, Twixt has a Europa (1991) meets Sin City (2005)-like quality of unreality about it. It appears insignificant, - particularly if compared to the major works of its Michigander master writer-director Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now (1979)), - but it contains more than first meets the eye. This dream-like horror comedy is strange, edgy and well worth watching.

 

Related reviews:



Francis Ford Coppola: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Coppola goes for the jugular with unsubtle, overlong adaptation

Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date

Apocalypse Now (1979) redux version - The horror of war  
Dementia 13/The Haunted and the Hunted (1963) - Coppola's gothic AIP castle horror 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 0.6 $

= Box office disaster

[Twixt premiered September 4 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 90 minutes. Coppola did indeed write the film based on a nightmare he had had. Filming took place between November - December 2010 in California, including in Napa Valley, some of it on Coppola's vineyard estate. In North America, the film was only screened at 3 film festivals and released as VoD in 2013. The film was released in a dozen other countries, some just at a festival. Of the only 5 markets that have numbers released, the film seems to have done most business in France with 354k $, however, the gross number above is incomplete, as it only accounts for these 5 markets. Because the film is produced by Coppola's own American Zoetrope, it was most likely his own money that was lost on it. Twixt is rotten at 29% with a 4.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Twixt?

Inception (2010) - Nolan's best is a grand piece of action sci-fi, perfectly awesome nonsense

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3 Film Excess wins:

Best Screenplay: Christopher Nolan 
Best Cinematography: Wally Phister 
Best Practical Effects  

9 Film Excess nominations:

Best Film (lost to The King's Speech)

Best Screenplay: Christopher Nolan (won)

Best Director: Christopher Nolan (lost to Sofia Coppola for Somewhere)
Best Cinematography: Wally Phister (won)
Best Sound (lost to Insidious) 
Best Practical Effects (won) 
Best Digital Effects (lost to Alice in Wonderland) 
Best Makeup and Hair (lost to The Wolfman) 
Best Music: Hans Zimmer (lost to Treme S1)

+ Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year

The folding effect is showcased on this poster for Christopher Nolan's Inception

Cobb is a hunted man. Hunted from his country where the authorities believe he killed his wife. And by his employers, because he has failed. But most of all he is a man haunted by his own dreams ...

The plot of Inception, by Oscar-nominated British master writer-director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight (2008)), is very hard if not impossible to recount. It is a sci-fi masterpiece, a visually sumptuous film whose like we haven't seen since The Matrix (1999). Several sequences in the film are dumbfounding to the eyes, meanwhile the intellectual capacities are racing away to keep up with the film.
Leonard DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street (2016)) and Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose (2007)) are delightful, and Hans Zimmer's (Freeheld (2015)) Oscar-nominated score is inciting and fateful. Inception is visually, effect-wise and conceptually formidable, with remarkable cinematography by Oscar-winning Wally Phister (Insomnia (2002)). The plot is inventive, captivating and perfectly balances understandable elements with nonsense. The strong, sexy ensemble cast also all sustain incredibly nice hair throughout the trials. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's (The Dark Knight Rises (2012)) zero gravity-scenes are historically great. Inception is a unique and dizzying experience that keeps spinning us round and round.

Related posts:

Christopher Nolan: Interstellar (2014) - Nolan heads to space in opulent, exciting epic
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) or, Batman and the Storm, Darkness, Anarchy, Evil, Depression
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
The Dark Knight (2008) - Nolan's best Batman  
Batman Begins (2005) or, Modern, Dark, Smooth Batman 

Watch an IMAX-pushing trailer for the film here

Cost: 160 mil. $
Box office: 825.5 mil. $
= Big hit
[Inception premiered July 8 (London's Odeon Leicester Square) and runs 148 minutes. Nolan had been developing the ideas in the film since before 2002, when he handed in an 80-page treatment to Warner Bros. for a dream-centered horror. After gaining experience with huge films (the two first in his Batman trilogy and The Prestige), Nolan sold his spec script to Warner in 2009 with production beginning a few months later. Filming lasted June - November 2009 in Japan, England, France, Morocco, LA and Canada. Inception was released normally and in the IMAX format, although it was not shot with IMAX cameras. An additional 100 mil. $ was reportedly used on marketing the film, which, with DVD/Blu-ray sales also accounted for, leaves the film merely a box office success. It opened #1 to a 62.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for two more weeks before getting booted down by The Other Guys and grossed 292.5 mil. $ (35.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 68.4 mil. $ (8.3 %) and the UK with 56.6 mil. $ (6.9 %). It was the 6th highest-grossing film of the year in North America and the 4th internationally. It made many critics' top 10 lists of the year and was given a 4/4 star rating by Roger Ebert. Inception was nominated for 8 Oscars: It won for its visual effects, sound editing, sound mixing and cinematography. It lost score to The Social Network, art direction to Alice in Wonderland and original screenplay and picture to The King's Speech. It has made in excess of 68 mil. $ on DVD/Blu-ray sales. Inception is certified fresh at 86 with an 8.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes and is currently #14 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250.]

What do you think of Inception?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) or, Don't Fall Asleep!

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Something vicious lurks in the shadows of sleep on this neat, painted poster for Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street

I really love this film and definitely consider it better than the just reviewed American Graffiti.

Teenager Nancy and her friends find themselves in mortal danger due to the deceased neighborhood child molester Freddy Krueger, who steals them away in their nightmares.

The original Elm Street is the 7th theatrical feature from great Ohioan writer/director Wes Craven (The Last House on the Left (1972)). It has ultra-cool practical effects, Robert Englund's (I Want to Be a Soldier (2010)) charismatic, diabolical performance as Krueger, sweet girl Heather Langenkamp (The Demolitionist (1995)) as iconic final girl Nancy, Ronee Blakley's (She Came to the Valley (1979)) memorable turn as her souped-up mother, the always competent John Saxon (Killing Obsession (1994)) as her father and a very young, very delectable Johnny Depp (Lucky Them (2013)) as an ill-fated youth in his movie debut.
The central idea of getting offed by your nightmares is very scary and evocative, and Craven made this film an outstanding and marvelously entertaining classic for every fan of horror.

Related posts:

Wes Craven: 2011 in films - according to Film Excess Scream 4 (2011) - Craven & Williams serve an irresistible slasher treat
My Soul to Take (2010) - Craven returns with a subpar teen slasher
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) or, Your Kids and the Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs
Remake: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) - Another terrible remake of a horror classic 

 

Watch a short TV ad for the movie here

Cost: 1.8 mil. $
Box office: 25.5 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit (returned at least 14.16 times the cost)
[A Nightmare on Elm Street premiered in October (West Germany) and runs 91 minutes. Craven based his idea on reports about male South East Asian refugees in America in the 1970s, who were dying in their sleep from extreme nightmares, while basing Freddy Krueger on his childhood bully. The prospect was rejected by major studios except for fledgling distributor New Line Cinema, who went into production with Nightmare, which solidified the company immensely. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, from June - July 1984. 500 gallons of fake blood were used. Jsu Garcia (Traffic (2000)), who plays Rod Lane (as Nick Corri), had recently been homeless and took heroine during filming. Craven and New Line leader Robert Shaye disagreed on the ending, which made Craven reject making the first sequel. The film opened #10 to an 1.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it later peaked at #2 in its only week in the top 5, behind holdover hit Beverly Hills Cop. The foreign grosses are not made public, but the film must have made at least 30-35 mil. $ in total. Craven returned with Chiller (1985, TV movie) and an episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (1986) and theatrically with Deadly Friend (1986). Langenkamp returned in Nickel Mountain (1984), Englund in V (1984-85), Hollywood Beat (1985, TV-series) and theatrically in the first Nightmare sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985). A Nightmare on Elm Street is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Nightmare on Elm Street?