The Immigrant (2013) - Cotillard scintillates in Gray's classical New-York storytelling

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Three mysteriously looking stars veiled in seriousness adorn this poster for James Gray's The Immigrant

Ewa and her sister arrive to the US from Poland in 1921 but are split up on Ellis Island, and Ewa winds up with a dubious man, hidden from the watchful eye of the law.

 

The Immigrant is written by Ric Menello (Tougher Than Leather (1988)) and co-writer/co-producer/director James Gray (Little Odessa (1994)).

Gray again here shows his gift as a sublime storyteller with a classical film and a story that could have been told 80 years ago as well. The Immigrant has beautiful cinematography (by Darius Khondji (Okja (2017))), production design and costumes. Fine performances from Joaquin Phoenix (Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)) and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker (2008)), - but it is Marion Cotillard (The Dark Knight Rises (2012)) who once again astounds the viewer with a fully authentic turn as the Polish Ewa, a cowed but not beaten woman, who fights for her sister and her own life.

The Immigrant may seem only distantly relevant to some. For me it was a pure pleasure.

 

Related posts:

 

James Gray: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Lost City of Z (2016) - Gray's grand, adventurous Amazonia epic 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 16 mil. $

Box office: 5.9 mil. $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.36 times its cost)

[The Immigrant premiered 24 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 117 minutes. Gray based the story mainly on recollections from his own grandparents. Shooting took place from January - March 2012 in New York. When the film's investors sold the distribution rights to The Weinstein Company, against Gray's wishes, and when Harvey Weinstein demanded a different ending, which Gray refused to give him, the distribution was left in shambles, with the film only getting a very small and unsupported release in North America. The film opened #47 to a 44k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #18 and in 150 theaters, grossing 2 mil. $ (33.9 % of the total gross). The biggest market for the film was France with 2.2 mil. $ (37.3 %), with North America 2nd biggest and Spain 3rd with 464k $ (7.9 %). The film lost the Palme d'Or to Blue Is the Warmest Color. It was also nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards, among other honors. Gray returned with The Red Road (2014, TV-series) and a Chanel commercial prior to his theatrical return with The Lost City of Z (2016). Cotillard returned in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013); Renner in American Hustle (2013); and Phoenix in Her (2013). The Immigrant is certified fresh at 86 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Immigrant?

Ishtar (1987) - May and Beatty's infamous Saharan stinker

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Two Bedouins are dragging something by a rope in the desert on this poster for Elaine May's Ishtar

Two middle-aged, unpersuasive singer/songwriters are looking for their big break-through, and they figure that they will find it in ... Ishtar, Morocco.

 

Ishtar is written and directed by Elaine May (A New Leaf (1971)).

You will need to read about this production to comprehend just why we have this thoroughly odd, deeply failed film before us. Ishtar works best at its outset, in which some may find a bit of amusement in the casting of Dustin Hoffman (John and Mary (1969)) as a great ladies' man and Warren Beatty (Heaven Can Wait (1978)) as the admiring dullard second banana. The whole adventure to the Middle East is attempted sauced into an archaic, painfully old-fashion 'charm', while Isabelle Adjani (Peter von Kant (2022)) performs in an awkward, strange role, and the two male stars yell and generally make asses of themselves among strangers in a strange land in scene after scene, all consisting of unfunny material.

Ishtar is enormously poorly executed, a head-shaking waste of resources. It is also a film that will forever remind us just how low and how deep Hoffman and Beatty are able to fall. The lesson of Ishtar? Don't put together a movie out of bad conscience for a woman (or for any person probably) with dubious abilities as a filmmaker. Some people, mostly in some way connected to its stars and other involved talents, have 're-evaluated' Ishtar and celebrated it, but these opinions are merely transparent attempts to please the still highly respected veterans in the miserable affair.

 

Related post:

 

Elaine May: Primary Colors (1998) - Nichols' bloated political caricature bomb (writer)

 

  

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 51 mil. $

Box office: 14.3 mil. $ (North America only)

= Mega-flop (projected return of 0.39 times its cost)

[Ishtar was released 15 March (North America) and runs 107 minutes. Beatty put the film together, talking Hoffman, his own girlfriend Adjani and the studio into doing it because he felt indebted to May for helping write some of his recent hit films, and the idea for the film came from her. Beatty and Hoffman reportedly received 5.5 mil. $ and May 1.5 mil. $ for their labor prior to production, with Beatty and Hoffman receiving another 500k $ by its completion, so that 12.5 mil. $ were spent on the three before the production began. Budgeted at 27.5 mil. $, the film would wind up going 23 mil. $ over-budget. Against the studio's wishes, production was allowed in Morocco in the Sahara Desert due to its parent company Coca Cola having funds locked there that could then be used for the production. Shooting took place from October 1985 - March 1986 in Morocco, including Marrakesh, and in New York. May's direction and detail-orientation led to fights with her cinematographer and Beatty , which made the shoot prolonged and costs rise alarmingly. When the shoot returned to New York, Beatty confessed to Columbia's CEO that May could not direct but refused firing her due to his image as a supporter of women's rights. The solution became that every scene be subsequently shot twice; in May's way and then in Beatty's way, involving further cost overruns. Fights persisted during editing of the enormous amount of film shot, as the film's Christmas release became impossible. Despite the many signs that the film would bomb the studio released it with copious marketing to the tune of (another) 20 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 4.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#4), grossing 14.3 mil. $. The film's international numbers are regrettably kept hidden, but the film did sell 40k tickets in the small country Denmark, grossing around 320k $ there. A conservative estimation of the final gross may be 20 mil. $. Roger Ebert gave the film a 0.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. May never returned to directing, turning more to writing and acting. Beatty returned in Dick Tracy (1990); Hoffman in Rain Man (1988); and Adjani in Camille Claudel (1988). Ishtar is rotten at 40 % with a 4.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Ishtar? 

In the Blood/I Blodet (2016) - Youth in Copenhagen captured in striking debut

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+ Best Copenhagen Movie of the Year

 

Young, nearly adult characters superimposed with the tagline 'tomorrow we become adults' on the pleasant poster for Rasmus Heisterberg's In the Blood

 

Simon is a young student of medicine, who shares a flat with several other young friends and parties abundantly. He and his best friend Knud have a plan to travel out and have a longer stay abroad in Bolivia.

 

In the Blood is written and directed by debuting Rasmus Heisterberg (King's Game/Kongekabale (2004)). The title is a literal translation of the original Danish one.

Exceptionally fine photography (by Niels Thastum (Exit Plan/Selvmordsturisten (2019))) roots our situation of being observing outsiders to an intimate portrayal of youth here, heightening this very Copenhagen film. What it portrays is the intoxicating, anxiety-provoking time as a young free person; that time which for most people in hindsight seems to have lasted too shortly.

The acting, if not flawless, is good throughout. At one point I tired some with the drinking-obsessed, low brow friends, (why couldn't they have been a bit more differentiated, charming, funny?), SPOILER and then the film develops a bit anticlimactically, since the Bolivia plan never materializes. As so often happens, the 'small story' is chosen over the larger one, in a Danish picture. In the Blood, as also habitually happens, was overly celebrated locally, but it is still a good movie.

 

Related posts:

 

Rasmus Heisterberg: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Department Q: The Absent One/The Absent One/Fasandræberne (2014) - Nørgaard's second Q movie picks up some slack (co-writer)

Northwest/Nordvest (2013) - Strong performances make Noer's underwritten crime thriller work (co-writer)

Truth About Men/Sandheden om Mænd (2010) - Arcel's witty meta-dramedy (co-writer)

Cecilie (2007) - Well-made but unoriginal Danish horror (co-writer) 

Fighter (2007) - Arthy makes good youth drama with propulsive kung fu (co-writer) 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown, projected 1.46 mil. $ (10 mil. DKK)

Box office: Approximately 529k $

= Mega-flop (projected return of 0.36 times its cost)

[In the Blood premiered 10 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place in Denmark, including in Copenhagen, in Germany and Thailand. The film sold only 6,006 tickets in Denmark, the only market in which it had a general release. It was also screened at 8 festivals. If made on a realistic first feature low budget of 10 mil. DKK, the film would rank as a mega-flop. It was nominated for 8 Robert awards (Denmark's Oscar), winning one. Heisterberg has not returned as a director since and has taken a long break from films in fact; though he is finally returning as co-writer on Joshua Oppenheimer's hotly anticipated The End (2024). Kristoffer Bech (Stjernestøv (2020, TV-series)) returned in Hjertestart (2017); Elliott Crosset Hove (Before the Frost/Før Frosten (2018)) in Across the Waters/Across the Waters (2016). 746 IMDb users have given In the Blood a 6.0/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of In the Blood? 

Indignation (2016) - Sympathetic if muted Schamus debut

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Two very nice-looking young co-stars seated in a window sill is the unexceptional motif on this poster for James Schamus' Indignation

Marcus is a Jewish boy from New Jersey, a top student with an ambitious mother and a father who is a butcher, and he falls for a different type of girl, when he goes to college in Ohio...

Indignation is written, co-produced and directed by debuting James Schamus (The Ice Storm (1997, writer)), adapting the same-titled 2008 novel by Philip Roth (American Pastoral (1997)).

It is a well-acted portrait of the tightly wound America of the 1950s, a country at the cusp of change, with a thematic core about the relationship between Christianity and atheism, about the individual's right to his own story and perceptions, - and to attempt to convince others of his beliefs.

Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)) and Sarah Gadon (Black Bear (2020)) are good and palatable as the precocious young couple. Tracy Letts (Eric Larue (2023)) is excellent in a supporting part as a Conservative dean. Linda Emond (Only Murders in the Building (2023, TV-series)) as Marcus' mother is also terrific. Schamus succeeds in making the longer, dialog-based scenes vivid and thrilling. SPOILER The ending is somewhat confusing and unresolved: He soon after perishes in the Korean War, while she lives for decades...? Too many balances are cut out, and the title's indignation is never felt. - What here is supposed to leave us indignant? On whose behalf? The young man's, I presume, who is kicked out of college for being himself and not go to church, and therefore sent to war, but the film, - at least from a Christian perspective, - mostly merely portrays a less desirable time.

 

Related posts:

 

James Schamus: The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

Lust, Caution/色，戒/Sè, Jiè/Sik1Gaai3 (2007) - Lee's erotic spy thriller is an exquisite, complex masterpiece (co-writer) 

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

Hulk (2003) - Lee's fantastic comics adaptation drama (co-writer) 

The Ice Storm (1997) - Lee makes one of the year's great American films (writer)

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 3.9 mil. $

= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.39 times its cost)

[Indignation premiered 24 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 111 minutes. Shooting took place from June - July 2015 in New York in just 25 days on a reportedly low budget, here projected at 10 mil. $. The film opened #34 to a 93k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 317 theaters (different weeks), grossing 3.4 mil. $ (87.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Brazil with 72k $ (1.8 %) and the UK with 54k $ (1.4 %). Schamus returned with a short for 30/30 Vision: 3 Decades of Strand Releasing (2019, anthology) and is hoping to return theatrically with College Republicans. Lerman returned in The Vanishing of Sidney Hall (2017); Gadon in 11.22.63 (2016, miniseries) and theatrically in The 9th Life of Louis Drax (2016). Indignation is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Indignation?

Heli (2013) - Alarming drug drama from sieged Mexico

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A girl in school dress walks in a barren, rough landscape on this ominous poster for Amat Escalante's Heli

Heli is newly married in the poor area of Durango, Mexico, where his smaller sister has a boyfriend several years her senior, and where a drug situation involving this boyfriend will soon alter everything for the family.

 

Heli is written by Gabriel Reyes (Bella y Loca (2018)) and co-writer/director Amat Escalante (Blood/Sangre (2005)), with contributions by Zümrüt Cavusoglu (The Bastards/Los Bastardos (2008), art director) and Ayhan Ergürsel (Grain/Bugday (2017), editor).

It is a gruesome and grim film about the extreme hopelessness and depraved, macho-centered violence that holds much of Mexico in a vice. The powerless and desperate characters do not strike a deep sense of identification for most audiences, because they are dehumanized, but this is a point in itself. Their situation is striking and unadorned in this remarkable film.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 1 mil. $

Box office: 367k $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.36 times its cost)

[Heli premiered 16 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 105 minutes. 17 companies and support bodies were involved in the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place in Mexico in 2012. The film has only played a few film festivals in North America and was mainly a festival title. Its 5 recorded markets at Box Office Mojo record a 367k $ gross with the majority (309k $ (84.2 % of the total gross))) coming from Mexico. The film won Escalante the Best Director prize at Cannes, among other honors.It was Mexico's nomination for the Best Foreign Film Oscar of the year but did not get nominated. Escalante returned with Esclava (2014, short) and theatrically with Vidas Violentas (2015). Armando Espitia (Latido (2023)) returned in Open Cage/Los Bañistas (2014); Andrea Vergara, who plays his sister, has not returned to acting. Heli is rotten at 59 % with a 6.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Heli?

The Postman (1997) - Costner's colossal apocalyptic turkey

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Star/co-producer/director Kevin Costner walks around with a mule in a barren landscape under a desecrated US flag on this poster for his The Postman

In a post-apocalyptic future in the year 2013, America has collapsed, but a nomad in a postman's uniform that he has found is going to lead a rebellion against the tyrannical new leader!

 

The Postman is written by Brian Helgeland (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)) and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump (1994)), adapting the same-titled 1985 novel by David Brin (Kiln People (2002)), and directed by co-producer/director/star Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves (1990)).

It is incredible that Costner was given the huge budget for this even more unfathomable script after the then recent disaster of the Costner-starring action-adventure Waterworld (1995), which is a much better movie. Here he mourns his donkey, as said donkey gets boiled into a stew, and he keeps quoting Shakespeare to Will Patton's (Minari (2020)) irate General Bethlehem, when the general isn't decapitating unfortunate ones. Why the world has come to a place where it consists of a relatively small group of people in a gravel pit who yell for The Sound of Music, which is what we meet in The Postman, we never get an explanation. Nor do we get enlightened when it comes to the involuntarily comical, mysterious relationship with delivering the mail and being a postman, which Costner revels in here. The dialog about this point should be taken down as among the daftest in cinema history. 

The score (by James Newton Howard (Pain Hustlers (2023))) indicates knee-high adventure, and the photography (by Stephen F. Windom (Needle (2010))) is grand and good-looking, - but the story around these elements is utter rubbish. The Postman is endlessly awful.

 

Related posts:

Kevin Costner: Molly's Game (2017) - Chastain is luminous in Sorkin's great true-crime debut (co-star)

Man of Steel (2013) or, Superman v Zod: Sunset of Destruction (co-star)

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

Open Range (2003) - Costner impresses with fabulous classic western

Thirteen Days (2000) - Electrifying Cuban Missile Crisis thriller (actor/producer)  

Dances with Wolves (1990) - Costner's triumphant, simpatico western

 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 80 mil. $

Box office: 20.8 mil. $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.26 times its cost)

[The Postman premiered 12 December (California) and runs 177 minutes. Shooting took place from March - July 1997 in Oregon and Washington. Reportedly Costner refused to cut down the film's length at the studio's insistence, following two "disastrous" test screenings. The film opened #9 to a 5.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, its highest rank there, where it grossed 17.6 mil. $ (84.6 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film a 1.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Costner returned with Open Range (2003) as a filmmaker and in Message in a Bottle (1999) as an actor. The Postman is rotten at 10 % with a 4.20/10 average rating at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Postman?

Player (2013) - Plot and quality head South for Danish comedy team

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Two of Denmark's most famous funny men riding a scooter with big smiles in Southern France try to sell here on the poster for Tomas Villum Jensen's Player

A dull lawyer from Copenhagen is handling a divorce case in Southern France, before he is going to propose to his boss' daughter. But on the trip he has soon lost 10 mil. Danish kroner, as he meets an old friend and a beautiful woman.

 

Player is written by Marie Østerbye (The Rain (2018, VoD TV-series)) and co-writer/co-star Casper Christensen (Dan-Dream (2017)), based on an idea from director Tomas Villum Jensen (Kærlighed ved Første Hik (1999)).

The beautiful woman in France remains a cipher until the end, except for the qualities of having a lovely smile and figure, and seeming nice and more natural than the daughter that the lawyer plans to marry.

Player provokes light chuckles three to four times, but unfortunately it is extinguished of really funny mix-ups, and Christensen probably should have abandoned this type of douche-bag character type after his long engagement with a similar one in the Clown/Klovn universe (TV-series 2005-18 plus three features in 2010, 2015 and 2020.) The climax of Player is also extremely short, which confirms the few, lazy or unstimulated narrative nerves behind the film.

 

Related posts:

 

Tomas Villum Jensen: Sprængfarlig Bombe (2006) - The two Jensens' satire is unrefined but hilarious

Sidste Time (1995) - Hammy, heavy-handed Danish teen horror (actor) 

 

 

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 19 mil. DKK, approximately 2.77 mil. $

Box office: 1.3 mil. $

=  Mega-flop (returned 0.46 times its cost)

[Player was released 20 June (Denmark) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place in Copenhagen, Denmark and France. The film opened #2 in Denmark, where 96,089 paid admission in total. The film was not released in other markets. Jensen has since left directing alone, only except for 3 TV specials of celebrities playing golf. Christensen returned in Klown Forever (2015); Rasmus Bjerg (Held for Ransom/Ser Du Månen Daniel (2019)) in Gentlemen (2014). 1.2k IMDb users have given Player a 4.7/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of Player? 

Paradise: Hope/Paradies: Hoffnung (2013) - A chubby teen camp meets the Seidl eye

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Three large young women sit awkwardly on a gym bench on this poster for Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Hope

Melanie is an overweight teenage girl who is sent away to a camp for girls like herself for a time to alter her lifestyle.

Paradise: Hope is written by Veronika Franz (Kern (2012, documentary)) and great Austrian filmmaker, co-writer/director Ulrich Seidl (Models (1999)). It is the 3rd film in the pair's Paradise trilogy, also consisting of Paradise: Love (2012) and Paradise: Faith (2012). The title is a literal translation of the original German title.

We follow Melanie's camp stay, which Seidl investigates without much of a direction with the added label 'Hope', which also doesn't seem to say much about the characters here. They are young; yes, hopeful; perhaps. - But we never learn where they end up. There are still fine and unusual scenes in Paradise: Hope, but it is the weakest in the trilogy and fundamentally it is missing something.

 

Related post:

 

Ulrich Seidl: Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012) - Strong Catholic faith through Seidl's lens 

Paradise: Love/Paradies: Liebe (2012) - Woman's love safari fertile ground for Seidl drama

 

 

Watch a teaser for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 457k $

= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.25 times its cost)

[Paradise: Hope premiered 8 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place in Austria. The film opened #75 to a 2k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, spreading to 3 theaters but unable to gain a higher rank, grossing 6k $ (1.3 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Germany with 189k $ (41.4 %), Austria with 168k $ (36.8 %) and Spain with 44k $ (9.6 %). If made on a realistic 1.8 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. Seidl returned with In the Basement/Im Keller (2014, documentary). Melanie Lenz (Paradise: Love (2012)), who plays Melanie, did not return to the screen after the film. Paradise: Hope is fresh at 88 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Paradise: Hope?

Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012) - Strong Catholic faith through Seidl's lens

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A woman in front of a crucifix exposes her butt on this curious poster for Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Faith

Marianne is a deeply religious Catholic cancer ward nurse, and in her off time she walks outside with her sculpture of the Virgin Mary. When her invalid Muslim husband returns home, sparks between the two erupt.

 

Paradise: Faith is written by Veronika Franz (Safari (2016)) and great Austrian filmmaker, co-writer/director Ulrich Seidl (Models (1999)). It is the 2nd film in the pair's Paradise trilogy, which also consists of Paradise: Love (2012) and Paradise: Hope (2013). The title is a literal translation of the original German title.

It is presents a peculiar and original as well as a completely straight-lined and understandable narrative with impressively authentic performances, made in Seidl's signature docu-style. Especially Maria Hofstätter (Orkester (2021)) in the unembarrassed lead as Marianne, a fascinating and inspiring character, because she lifts her faith so actively, going out to confront her fellow (sad, miserable) Austrian countrymen with it. Her conflict with her husband has depth and nuances: Are we here witnesses to a rare artistic reflection of the cultural clash between Muslims and the West? Is Marianne's mission hopeless, pointless? Or meaningful and reputable? 

Paradise: Faith lets the questions stand open until the last scene, SPOILER in which Seidl's own assessment of Catholicism as a judgmental, restrictive kind of sadomasochism seems to take over, - which at best does not fully cover it, and at worst is an unfair rejection.

 

Related post:

 

Ulrich Seidl: Paradise: Love/Paradies: Liebe (2012) - Woman's love safari fertile ground for Seidl drama

 

 

Seidl talks about the film in a video here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 618k $

= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.34 times its cost)

[Paradise: Faith premiered 30 August (Venice Film Festival) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place from September - November 2011 in Vienna, Austria. The film opened #95 to a 2k $ first weekend in North America, where it never ranked higher and grossed 6k $ (1 % of the total gross). Its biggest markets were Austria with 295k $ (47.7 %), Germany with 226k $ (36.6 %) and Spain with 48k $ (7.8 %). If made on a realistic 1.8 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. The film won a European Film award, among other honors. Seidl returned with Paradise: Hope (2013). Hofstätter returned in Braunschlag (2012, TV-series) and theatrically in Paradise: Hope. Paradise: Faith is fresh at 73 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Paradise: Faith?