The Proposition (2005) - Stars and images stand out in Hillcoat's outback western

♥♥♥♥

 

A man on a high-point pointing a gun towards something unseen - along with cast pictures - make up this poster for John Hillcoat's The Proposition

1880s Australia, British colonization of the enormous land still in process: The Burns brothers are by nature it seems merciless killers. A small town has a captain that wants to expand civilization. He has a proposal to one of the brothers.

The Proposition is written by Nick Cave (Ghosts ... of the Civil Dead (1988)), who also co-composed the film's score, and directed by Australian master filmmaker John Hillcoat (To Have & to Hold (1996)), whose 2nd feature it is. 

The ending is a bit provocative, but also rather predictable, - especially for those with a bit of existing knowledge of screenwriter Cave's lyrical universe as a dark rock musician, the man's main calling. The film is centered around very visual violence and somewhat pretentious poetry, (again courtesy of Cave's pen.)

But The Proposition impresses with is ensemble cast of Emily Watson (On Chesil Beach (2017)), Guy Pearce (The Seventh Day (2021)), Ray Winstone (Jawbone (2017)) and John Hurt (Jackie (2016)) as a Darwin-skeptical racist, among others. Benoît Delhomme's (Minimata (2020)) cinematography is another beautiful feature to the film, which is carefully tinted in post production. Watson's milky-white skin has rarely been more beautiful than in The Proposition.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2 mil. $

Box office: 5 mil. $

= Even (returned 2.5 times its cost)

[The Proposition premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place in Australia. The film opened #46 to a 32k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 200 theaters, grossing 1.9 mil. $ (38 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 1.5 mil. $ (30 %) and the UK with 1.1 mil. $ (22 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Hillcoat returned with 3 music videos prior to his theatrical return The Road (2009). Pearce returned in First Snow (2006); Winstone with a voice performance and in 2 TV movies prior to his theatrical return in Breaking and Entering (2006); and Danny Huston (Marlowe (2022)) in Covert One: The Hades Factor (2006, miniseries) and theatrically in Marie Antoinette (2006). The Proposition is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Proposition?

Hello, Dolly! (1969) - Effervescent, grand musical entertainment from some of the greats

♥♥♥♥♥

 

A very late 1960s and supremely stylish poster for Gene Kelly's Hello, Dolly!

Dolly Levi is an effervescent widow who can afford just about anything. For her own future she targets the wealthy merchant of Yonkers, Mr. Vandergelder.

 

Hello, Dolly! is written and produced by Ernest Lehman (The Sound of Music (1965)), based on the same-titled 1964 Broadway play by Michael Stewart (Bring Back Birdie (1981)), which in turn was based on Thornton Wilder's (The Merchant of Yonkers (1938)) play The Matchmaker (1954). It is directed by Pennsylvanian master filmmaker Gene Kelly (On the Town (1949)), whose 9th feature it was.

Barbra Streisand (The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)) is radiant comically, musically and motion-wise (as well as erotically) as never before in the festive title role, and Walter Matthau (Charade (1963)) is formidably funny as the square Vandergelder. With tremendous guys as Vandergelder's underlings, his clerks (in particular the young Danny Lockin (Gypsy (1962)) is irresistible), as well as Joyce Ames (The Todd Killings (1971)) and Tommy Tune (The Boy Friend (1971)) as the in-love Ermengarde and Ambrose and flyingly fresh and keen dialog. Perhaps the length stretches a bit comfortably, but a musical lover can't but fall in love with this grand, beautifully photographed (by Harry Stradling Sr. (Island of Love (1963))) master class. The costumes, which has the elegant meeting the gaudy in a whirl of colors, and the dance acts, - along with a couple of the songs, - simply don't come more attractive or impressive.

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 25.3 mil. $

Box office: 33.2 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Uncertain, likely even

[Hello, Dolly! was released 16 December (USA) and runs 146 minutes. Streisand was paid 750k $ for her performance; Matthau 500k $. Shooting took place from April - August 1968 in Pennsylvania, New York and in Los Angeles, California. The release was delayed due to a contractual issue that it would not be allowed release before the Broadway show of Hello, Dolly! ended. Fox eventually paid 1-2 mil. $ to secure a release before the contract had stated. The film opened #3, behind On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Easy Rider, in North America, where it grossed 33.2 mil. $, making it one of the year's 5 highest-grossing films domestically. The film reportedly earned Fox 26 mil. $ globally, - enough that it ranks here as 'even' or 'box office success' status, but reportedly still incurring a 10 mil. $ loss for the studio, likely due to big marketing and print expenses which are not calculated into the theatrical status of a film's performance here. The film was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning 3: For Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Sound and Musical Picture Score (Lennie Hayton (The Virginian (1963, TV-series)) and Lionel Newman (The Pleasure Seekers (1964)). It lost Best Cinematography to Conrad L. Hall for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Costumes to Anne of the Thousand Days, Editing to Z and Picture to Midnight Cowboy.  The film was also nominated for 3 BAFTAs and 5 Golden Globes, among other honors. Kelly returned with The Cheyenne Social Club (1970). Streisand returned in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970); Matthau in A New Leaf (1971); and Michael Crawford (Condorman (1981)) in The Games (1970). Hello, Dolly! is rotten at 45 % with a 6.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Hello, Dolly!?

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - Myers returns to turkeyville

♥

 

A new troupe of young stars back franchise cornerstone Jamie Lee Curtis on this ominous poster for Rick Rosenthal's Halloween: Resurrection

Michael Myers irrevocably kills his sister, who is in a mental hospital, where she feigns to be sick (...), and then he throws himself at a group of young fools who are doing an Internet reality show in Michael's dilapidating childhood home.

 

Halloween: Resurrection is written by Larry Brand (Paranoia (1997)) and Sean Hood (The Legend of Hercules (2014)) and directed by Rick Rosenthal (Halloween II (1981)). It is the 8th and final film in the original Halloween franchise, before it was rebooted in 2007 and then again in 2018.

It begins fairly decently but gradually gets worse until a point where it is almost impossible to sit through the stupidities on-screen. There are no-one to root for, and several of the film's grisly murders are involuntarily comical, as when a murder gets cross-cut to Tyra Banks (Glee (2013, TV-series)) making a Milo while dancing in her editing trailer, (don't ask why.)

The very small light points in Halloween: Resurrection are Busta Rhymes (Narc (2002)), who brings a likable energy to the turkey, and Billy Kay (L.I.E. (2001)), who is regrettably only in the film a very brief time. Every one else is at best undistinguished in this horrible film, which even suffers from enormously ugly credits.

 

Related posts:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

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

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

 

Curtis candidly explains her troubles with Halloween H20 (1998) and Halloween: Resurrection in this video

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 37.6 mil. $

= Even (returned 2.50 times its cost)

[Halloween: Resurrection premiered 1 July (USA) and runs 94 minutes. Jamie Lee Curtis (Love Letters (1983)) was paid 3 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from May - June 2001 and September - October 2001 in British Colombia, including in Vancouver, and in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Men in Black II and fellow new releases Road to Perdition and Reign of Fire, to a 12.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 30.3 mil. $ (80.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 2 mil. $ (5.3 %) and Mexico with 1.1 mil. $ (2.9 %). Michael Myers returned in Rob Zombie's reboot Halloween (2007), now without Curtis. Rosenthal returned with 11 TV and short credits prior to his theatrical return with Nearing Grace (2005). Curtis returned in Freaky Friday (2003). Halloween: Resurrection is rotten at 12 % with a 3.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Halloween: Resurrection?

Film Excess' 6th birthday movie masterpiece: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003, documentary) - Morris attains a stunning depth and historic wingspan in chilling, inspiring and mind-boggling must-see

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Biopic of the Year + Best War Movie of the Year

With praise literally set between the lines, and the classily dressed Robert S. McNamara up against these, not unlike the background for a criminal in a lineup, this poster for Errol Morris' The Fog of War is cleverly devised

Robert S. McNamara worked with statistics during WWII, modernized the Ford auto company and was the US's secretary of defense for seven years, from 1961-68, while 25,000 US soldiers were killed in the Vietnam War. What lessons did he take from this incredible life?

The Fog of War is a masterwork in documentary from one of the discipline's masters, New-Yorker Errol Morris (Gates of Heaven (1978)), whose 8th feature it is. With one central interview with McNamara, in which the man is framed and the camera sometimes subtly tilted in such a way as to remind us audiences of the dizzying aspects of his statements, and to nudge us into staying critical towards the charismatic and eloquent subject, Morris here attains an expertly insightful portrait of not only US foreign and war politics during the Cold War, and a very powerful man who was pivotal to these, but also of his country on the whole through large parts of the 20th century.
It is both provocative and humanistically inspiring that the film is structured as 11 lessons that we can take (or deny) from the experience of the highly intelligent and complex McNamara. Whatever one may feel about the man and his actions, his cool assessments carry weight and validity. The film showcases a frightfully accomplished political communicator, who opposed the escalation of the Vietnam War internally as part of the political leadership under presidents J.F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and who states frankly that it is only due to the (for the US) humiliating outcome of the war that he hasn't been prosecuted for war crimes. Morris orders his material so that we may ponder over the vast loss of lives and resources while keeping a critical edge towards McNamara. During the credits we are also afforded clips where his responses to Morris' questions are simply denials to answer those that he felt came to close to his personal life, or the ones that he knew would incur too much controversy, (according to his taste.) This is also valuable clips, as they remind us that McNamara is a very conscious of his words and performance as an actor of his own and his country's history for the documentary.
The Fog of War is staged with a staggering mass of archival source material; it is an invaluable source for the understanding of Robert S. McNamara and the century in which he lived.

 

Related posts:

 

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

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

 
Previous Film Excess birthday movie masterpieces: Film Excess' 5th birthday movie masterpiece: Hunger/Sult/Svält (1966) - Oscarsson leaves you breathless in Carlsen's impressionist masterpiece
Film Excess' 4th birthday movie masterpiece: From Here to Eternity (1953) - Zinnemann, Taradash and Jones' Hawaii-set classic
Film Excess' 3rd birthday movie masterpiece: Anatomy of a Murder (1959) - The courtroom movie to rule them all
Film Excess' 2nd birthday movie masterpiece: The King's Speech (2010) - Hooper's soaring, royal masterpiece about overcoming human frailty
Film Excess' 1st birthday movie masterpiece: Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

Cost: Reportedly 2 mil. $
Box office: 5 mil. $
= Even (returned 2.5 times its cost)
[The Fog of War premiered 21 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, out of competition) and runs 107 minutes. Shooting took place in Massachusetts, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, Washington DC, Shanghai, China, Tokyo, Japan and Berlin, Germany. The film opened #46 to a 41k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 261 theaters, grossing 4.1 mil. $ (82 % of the total gross). The biggest markets in the 840k $ total foreign gross are not known. The film won the Best Documentary Oscar as well as an Independent Spirit award, 2 National Board of Review awards and other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Morris returned with Abu Ghraib-torture-themed documentary Standard Operating Procedure (2008). The Fog of War is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.32/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fog of War?

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Kubrick signs off with thrilling, sexually oriented adaptation

♥♥♥♥♥

+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Erotic Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best On-Screen Couple of the Year: Nicole Kidman & Tom Cruise

A mysterious, curiosity-sparking poster for Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut

A wealthy married couple from New York goof around and flirt at a jet set party, and the wife admits to nearly having had an affair the year before. This provokes her husband to venture out on a sexual nightmare.

Eyes Wide Shut is an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's (Beatrice (1901)) novella Dream Story/Traumnovelle (1926)), written by Frederic Raphael (Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)) and New Yorker master co-writer-director Stanley Kubrick (The Shining (1980)), whose last film it is.
Nicole Kidman (Moulin Roge! (2001)) and Tom Cruise (Risky Business (1983)), in one of the definitely most exciting and electric instances of a real-life couple starring in a film, are outstanding in Eyes Wide Shut, and so is Sydney Pollack (The Sopranos (2007), TV-series) in a key supporting part.
Eyes Wide Shut is intense and impossible to remove oneself from. It feels raw and is incredibly well-crafted, with sets of New York erected in London's Pinewood Studios appearing impressively authentic. It presents itself in an expressive color scheme, stemming, among other things, from its Christmas setting, so-called push processing and excellent lighting work; Kubrick wanted only natural lighting, only helped along in places by Chinese paper ball lamps. The terrific cinematography is by Larry Smith (Only God Forgives (2013)).
The film has a few scenes that drag out a bit. But the feeling that anything can happen is there throughout, which is unique. The ending and the title adds to the thought-provoking nature of Eyes Wide Shut, which is a worthy and rich final film for one of cinema's absolute best.

Related posts:
 
Stanley Kubrick: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - A robot fairytale with both heart and mind (concept only)

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date   
The Shining (1980) - Kubrick's descent into madness is a timeless masterpiece
Barry Lyndon (1975) - Kubrick's elegant 19th century costume whopper 

Top 10: Best future-set movies
A Clockwork Orange (1971) or, Outrage! The intellectual sci-fi-prison-crime-drama Shocker!
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or, Humanity and Space  
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb/Dr. Strangelove (1964) or, The Wrong Men, the Wrong Suits, the Wrong Invention

Watch Tom Cruise give an interview to Larry King about paparazzis before the film's American release here

Cost: 65 mil. $
Box office: 162 mil. $
= Even Steven
[Eyes Wide Shut premiered 13 July and runs 159 minutes. Kubrick bought the rights to the novella in the 1960s and had plans of making it with Woody Allen or Steve Martin as a comedy, which never happened. Several elements and character facts from the novella are changed in the film. Filming took place in England and New York from November 1996 - January 1998 with reshoots in May - June 1998. The shoot is recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest constant movie shoot, at 15 months, including an unbroken 46 week-long period of shooting. Kubrick's perfectionism was at its height, with meticulous recreating of parts of New York's Greenwich Village, as the master's fear of flying barred him from simply traveling there. Kubrick died 6 days after showing his first cut of the film to Kidman, Cruise and the executive producers. There are different accounts of the completion of the film (with Full Metal Jacket (1987) actor R. Lee Ermey stating what appears slanderous claims as to the master's satisfaction with the work), but it appears that Kubrick was extremely pleased with Eyes Wide Shut and his stars. The North American cut was altered in post production to disguise nudity that might have given it an NC-17 rating, which has drawn widespread criticism, (but probably helped it make a good deal of money in the market.) The film opened #1 to 21.7 mil. $ in North America, dropping to #4 the following weekend and then leaving the top 5, eventually grossing 55.6 mil. $ (34.3 % of the total gross). It was Kubrick's second highest-grossing film there, behind 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and is Martin Scorsese's fourth-favorite film of the 1990s. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, a César Award (France's Oscar) and won an award at Venice International Film Festival. Kidman and Cruise were divorced in 2001. Eyes Wide Shut is certified fresh at 74 % with a 7.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Eyes Wide Shut?

Winter Sleep/Kış Uykusu (2014) - Ceylan's complex, novelistic drama masterpiece

♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best Turkish Movie of the Year

 

An evocative, melancholic poster for Nuri Bilge Cylan's Winter Sleep

 

Aydin is an aging hotel and land owner and a hobby writer, Aydin, who collides with a family of down-on-their-luck tenants, meanwhile his sister and wife are waging a verbal war on him during a Turkish winter.

 

Winter Sleep is a film that is more shaped as a good novel would be than films usually are. SPOILER Around an hour passes concerning a broken car window; the next more or less with the carping sister; and the last, more or less, is spent on the disdainful wife. It is therefore not a movie for everyone, because it may be demanding for some in terms of our capacity for empathy, patience as well as intellectually. But Winter Sleep has a winter's slow pace but is never dull.

The film portrays humans with superior skill, - among other things, it includes a 15 minutes-long row between the brother and sister, which has to pass over in cinema history as one of the finest sibling squabbles ever, as they lash deeper and deeper stings against the other with the awful determination of petty family insight.

There is a lot at stake here. The film tackles meaty topics such as evil, charity and the marriage institution, - and it has some fabulous, archetypal characters. But the main theme, I think, is an unusual one for cinema, namely resignation. Resignation to the facts of life and its imperfect constructs. Resignation to flaws and defeat. The tale is seen from the viewpoint of Aydin (Haluk Bilginer (Buffalo Soldiers (2001))), a matured, melancholicly disposed man, who has passed his prime and knows it, but who still has a high regard for himself, his past years on the stage and his literary talents, especially as they pertain to skewering his local surroundings - in the local newspaper.

Winter Sleep is written by great Turkish co-writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia/Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da (2011)) and his wife Ebru Ceylan (Three Monkeys/Üç Maymun (2008)). It is based on Anton Chekhov's (The Seagull/Chayka (1896)) short story The Wife and one subplot of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's (The Idiot/Idiot (1868-9)) The Brothers Karamazov/Brat'ya Karamazovy (1879-80). 

 

Related posts:

 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

 

 

 

Watch an official trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: In excess of 4.1 mil. $

= Uncertainty (likely even Steven)

[Winter Sleep premiered May 16 (Cannes) and runs 196 minutes. Filming took place with the Sony F65 camera on location in Anatolia for 2 winter months, followed by four weeks in an Istanbul studio. The film was awarded 450k € from Eurimages as a French-German-Turkish co-production. The film won the Palm d'Or in Cannes as well as the FIPRESCI (critics') prize. It seems to have grossed 165k $ in North America (4 % of the total gross) . It made 1.6 mil. $ (39 % in its native Turkey, where it was reportedly Ceylan's biggest hit to date. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1 mil. $ (24.4 %) and Italy with 290k $ (7.1 %). It might have broken even but it is unlikely that it has turned a profit. It was Turkey's entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar but wasn't nominated. It has reportedly made an additional 88k $ on video sales. Winter Sleep is certified fresh at 88 % with an 8.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Winter Sleep?

Megamind (2010) - Ferrell leads McGrath's hilarious animation superbly

♥♥♥♥

2 Film Excess nominations:

Best Lead Actor: Will Ferrell, also for Everything Must Go (lost to Stephen Dorff for Somewhere)
Best Animation (lost to Toy Story 3)

+ Best Family Movie of the Year

An appropriately silly-looking poster for Tom McGrath's Megamind

Megamind is a super-villain who has fought for the power over Metro(-)City his whole life. When he suddenly attains it, he learns that it is futile to be the super-villain of a city that has no superhero ...

Despite Megamind being an animated feature, Will Ferrell (The Producers (2005)) steals the show completely with a superbly intonated, super-humorous voice performance as the title character. Of course it doesn't hurt that he is backed up by Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, Brad Pitt and a script that's rich on inventive fun. - The result is that Megamind is really funny! And animation-wise, it is as wildly attractive as intended, even if some of the action is obviously there simply to satisfy the need for 3D-type action.
The movie fires away at a high pace, successfully entertaining children as primarily an adventure and adults as primarily a comedy. Unfortunately for the film, it is an example of one of those cases where two major Hollywood films are released very near each other with almost suspiciously similar storylines: In this case Despicable Me, - also a film about a super-villain with an identity crisis development and helper minions simply called minions (Megamind's fishbowl helper is also called Minion), - which came out some months prior to Megamind and got to be the much more successful commercial one of the two, although they are of similar tone and fun level.
Megamind is written by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons (Penguins of Madagascar (2014), story, both) and directed by Washingtonian filmmaker Tom McGrath (Madagascar (2005)).

Related posts:

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

Watch the final official trailer for the film here

Cost: 130 mil. $
Box office: 321.8 mil. $
= Even-steven
[Megamind premiered October 28 (Russia) and runs 96 minutes. Robert Downey Jr. was initially intended to voice the title character, but that luckily fell through. The film opened #1 to a 46 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for another week before dethroning to #2 and then #3 before falling out of the top 5 in its 5th week. It grossed 148.4 mil. $ (46.1 % of the total gross) domestically. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 22 mil. $ (6.8 %) and the UK with 16 mil. $ (5 %). The film did not receive a release in China, and its Japanese release was canceled due to the Fukuyama-centered earthquake and tsunami, which contributed to its lackluster result. It sold in excess of 3 mil. DVDs and Blu-rays in North America, adding 43 mil. $ to its result, making it a financial success with this taken into account. Megamind is fresh at 73 % with a 6.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Megamind?