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Archive for April 2008

Ring! Ring! It’s Gordon.

by Christopher Beaubien • April 30, 2008 • Start the Discussion!

gordonMore viral marketing for The Dark Knight has been found at Clowntravelagency.com to further elevate your anticipation. Having entered the site, you’re just a few clicks away from filling out your name and phone number. Once you submit this information, be on guard for a phone call. If you dare answer it, say the given password “needle”.

On the other end, you will hear Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon interrogate you as a found member of the Joker’s gang.

“Let’s get a smile on that face!”

The Dark Knight comes to theatres July 18th.

Giacchino’s “Roar” is Released

by Christopher Beaubien • April 30, 2008 • Start the Discussion!

giacchinoYesterday, Ratatouille (2007) composer Michael Giacchino’s Roar, an eight-minute musical ode to 50s era Godzilla movies, has been made available on iTunes (only the US version). I couldn’t be happier. This was the only piece of an instrumental music to play over the entirity of J.J. Abrams’ produced Cloverfield, which was reserved for the end credits sequence.

There were only two elements of Cloverfield I enjoyed, in spite of how the filmmakers used their “hand held” camera like they were shaking a martini for 75 minutes. This brings new meaning to enjoying the end credits more than what preceded it. The music was like an award for enduring this tarnished hyped-up spectacle.

What I also enjoyed was really a who, Lizzy Caplan as Marlena. She was the only compelling character who had enough snark to go around the crowd of young, irritating drips surrounding her. To add insult to bug infection, she exited far too soon. With over a half-an-hour left, I was stuck the other survivors, too bored to cheer their deaths. At least, Marlena’s was kinda cool.

Followed by a strong cult following, the demand was as strong as the wait. Negotiations between iTunes over the release the Giacchino’s original cut of the score, which has been extended by five minutes, were met. Giacchino has said, “…there (were) a bunch of legal knots that need(ed) to be tied.”

Listening to the score again, I was reminded of Danny Elfman’s turbulently operatic score for Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks (1996). This main title sequence is so good that I could watch it forty-two times in the amount of time it would take to watch the actual movie.

The 2:06 mark is a killer.

The Best Films of 2007

by Christopher Beaubien • April 27, 2008 • 2 Comments

therewillbeblood

There Will Be Blood (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Zodiac (dir. David Fincher)
Once (dir. John Carney)
Ratatouille (dir. Brad Bird)
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (dir. Tim Burton)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (dir. Cristian Mungiu)
Brand Upon the Brain! (dir. Guy Maddin)
Black Book (dir. Paul Verhoeven)
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (dir. Sidney Lumet)
Zoo (dir. Robinson Devor)


Grindhouse_Best

Honourable Selection: THE GRINDHOUSE!

Death Proof (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Thanksgiving (dir. Eli Roth)
Planet Terror (dir. Robert Rodriguez)


Best_ThreeFlavoursCornettoTrilogy

Honourable Selection: THE THREE FLAVOURS CORNETTO TRILOGY

The World’s End (dir. Simon Pegg, 2013)
Hot Fuzz (dir. Simon Pegg, 2007)
Shaun of the Dead (dir. Simon Pegg, 2004)


Best_Gespenster

Honourable Selection: THE GESPENSTER TRILOGY

Yella (dir. Christian Petzold, 2007)
Gespenster (Ghosts) (dir. Christian Petzold, 2005)
The State I Am In (Die Innere Sicherheit) (dir. Christian Petzold, 2000)


Michael Clayton (dir. Tony Gilroy)
Stephanie Daley (dir. Hilary Brougher)
No Country for Old Men (dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (dir. Julian Schnabel)
Eastern Promises (dir. David Cronenberg)
Joshua (dir. George Ratliff)
The Lookout (dir. Scott Frank)
The Silence before Bach (dir. Pere Portabella)
In the City of Sylvia (dir. José Luis Guerín)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
(dir. Andrew Dominik)


Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts (dir. Scott Hicks)
Starting Out in the Evening (dir. Andrew Wagner)
Frownland (dir. Ronald Bronstein)
Control (dir. Anton Corbijn)
You, The Living (dir. Roy Andersson)
The Savages (dir. Tamara Jenkins)
Away from Her (dir. Sarah Polley)
Lake of Fire (dir. Tony Kaye)
Waitress (dir. Adrienne Shelly)
Sicko (dir. Michael Moore)


Persepolis (dir. Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud)
A Secret (dir. Claude Miller)
Margo at the Wedding (dir. Noah Baumbach)
No End in Sight (dir. Charles Ferguson)
Paris, Je T’aime (dir. 22 Filmmakers)
Juno (dir. Jason Reitman)
Terror’s Advocate (dir. Barbet Schroeder)
Taxi to the Dark Side (dir. Alex Gibney)
Snow Angels (dir. David Gordon Green)
Charlie Wilson’s War (dir. Mike Nichols)


Bridges to Terabithia (dir. Gabor Csupo)
Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door (dir. Gregory Wilson)
The Mist (dir Frank Darabont)
The Kite Runner (dir. Marc Forster)
In the Valley of Elah (dir. Paul Haggis)
Inside (dir. Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury)
Delirious (dir. Tom DiCillo)
Begging Naked (dir. Karen Gehres)
Atonement (dir. Joe Wright)
Irina Palm (dir. Sam Garbarski)


Jellyfish (Meduzot) (dir. Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret)
Boarding Gate (dir. Olivier Assayas)
Breach (dir. Billy Ray)
Boy A (dir. John Crowley)
Crazy Love (dir. Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens)
La Vie en Rose (dir. Olivier Dahan)
Romance & Cigarettes (dir. John Turturro)
The Man from London (dir. Béla Tarr)
I’m Not There (dir. Todd Haynes)
Torn from the Flag (dir. Klaudia Kovacs and Endre Hules)


Chicago 10 (dir. Brett Morgen)
Import/Export (dir. Ulrich Seidl)
The Host (dir. Joon-ho Bong)
Gone Baby Gone (dir. Ben Affleck)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (dir. David Yates)
My Kid Could Paint That (dir. Amir Bar-Lev)
Lars and the Real Girl (dir. Craig Gillespie)
The Simpsons Movie (dir. David Silverman)
Teeth (dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein)
Big Man Japan (dir. Hitoshi Matsumoto)


A Girl Cut in Two (dir. Claude Chabrol)
Into the Wild (dir. Sean Penn)
Hairspray (dir. Adam Shankman)
The Darjeeling Limited (dir. Wes Anderson)
Please Vote for Me (dir. Weijun Chen)
2 Days in Paris (dir. Julie Delpy)
The Orphanage (dir. Juan Antonio Bayona)
Last Days (dir. Gus Van Sant)
1408 (dir. Mikael Håfström)
Roman de Gare (Crossing Tracks) (dir. Claude Lelouch)


In Search of a Midnight Kiss (dir. Alex Holdridge)
Elle s’appelle Sabine (Her Name is Sabine) (dir. Sandrine Bonnaire)
Reservation Road (dir. Terry George)
12 (dir. Nikita Mikhalkov)
The Bourne Ultimatum (dir. Paul Greengrass)
A Mighty Heart (dir. Michael Winterbottom)
Brick Lane (dir. Sarah Gavron)
3:10 to Yuma (dir. James Mangold)
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (dir. Seth Gordon)
Year of the Dog (dir. Mike White)


Eagle vs. Shark (dir. Taika Waititi)
The Killer (Le Tueur) (dir. Cédric Anger)
The Great Debaters (dir. Denzel Washington)
Phantom Love (dir. Nina Menkes)
The Last Mistress (dir. Catherine Breillat)
Married Life (dir. Ira Sachs)
Helvetica (dir. Gary Hustwit)
Enchanted (dir. Kevin Lima)
No Reservations (dir. Scott Hicks)
Your Mommy Kills Animals (dir. Curt Johnson)


Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) (dir. Patricia Riggen)
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (dir. Jake Kasdan)
Shoot ‘Em Up (dir. Michael Davis)
An American Crime (dir. Tommy O’Haver)
The Brave One (dir. Neil Jordon)
Knocked Up (dir. Judd Apatow)
American Gangster (dir. Ridley Scott)


The Best Films of 2006

by Christopher Beaubien • April 26, 2008 • 1 Comment

Little Children (dir. Todd Field)
Pan’s Labyrinth (dir. Guillermo del Toro)
Children of Men (dir. Alfonso Cuarón)
Paprika (dir. Satoshi Kon)
The Descent (dir. Neil Marshall)
The Lives of Others (dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
The Proposition (dir. John Hillcoat)
Man Push Cart (dir. Ramin Bahrani)
The King (dir. James Marsh)
Bug (dir. William Friedkin)


Best_LauraPoitras

Honourable Selection: AMERICA POST 9/11 TRILOGY

CITIZENFOUR (dir. Laura Poitras, 2014)
The Oath (dir. Laura Poitras, 2010)
My Country, My Country (dir. Laura Poitras, 2006)


Best_Coogan_Brydon

Honourable Selection: STEVE COOGAN VS. ROB BRYDON

The Trip to Italy (dir. Michael Winterbotom, 2014)
The Trip (dir. Michael Winterbotom, 2011)
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
(dir. Michael Winterbottom, 2006)


United 93 (dir. Paul Greengrass)
Longford (dir. Tom Hopper)
The Illusionist (dir. Neil Burger)
Edmond (dir. Stuart Gordon)
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit
Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (dir. Larry Charles)
Day Night Day Night (dir. Julia Loktev)
The Queen (dir. Stephen Frears)
Helen (dir. Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor)
Stranger Than Fiction (dir. Marc Forster)
Inland Empire (dir. David Lynch)


Red Road (dir. Andrea Arnold)
Climates (dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Open Window (dir. Mia Goldman)
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (dir. Cristi Puiu)
Little Miss Sunshine (dir. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris)
Summer ’04 (Stefan Krohmer)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (dir. Mamoru Hosoda)
Casino Royale (dir. Martin Campbell)
Notes on a Scandal (dir. Richard Eyre)
Requiem (dir. Hans-Christian Schmid)


Bubble (dir. Steven Soderbergh)
The Last King of Scotland (dir. Kevin Macdonald)
Offside (dir. Jafar Panahi)
Flags of Our Fathers | Letters from Iwo Jima (dir. Clint Eastwood)
The Departed (dir. Martin Scorsese)
Deliver Us from Evil (dir. Amy Berg)
The Notorious Bettie Page (dir. Mary Harron)
The Free Will (Der Freie Wille) (dir. Matthias Glasner)
Babel (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Marie Antoinette (dir. Sofia Coppola)


Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (dir. Stanley Nelson)
The Dead Girl (dir. Karen Moncrieff)
The Bridge (dir. Eric Steel)
The Killer Within (dir. Macky Alston)
Joyeux Noel (dir. Christian Carion)
Bamako (dir. Abderrahmane Sissako)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (dir. Adam McKay)
Days of Glory (dir. Rachid Bouchareb)
Monster House (dir. Gil Kenan)
Sleeping Dogs Lie (Stay) (dir. Bobcat Goldthwait)


Blood Diamond (dir. Edward Zwick)
Trance (Transe) (dir. Teresa Villaverde)
Curse of the Golden Flower (dir. Yimou Zhang)
Half Nelson (dir. Ryan Fleck)
Conversations with Other Women (dir. Hans Canosa)
Brick (dir. Rian Johnson)
A Prairie Home Companion (dir. Robert Altman)
This Is England (dir. Shane Meadows)
Mon Fils à Moi (dir. Martial Fougeron)
Slither (dir. James Gunn)


Strangers with Candy (dir. Paul Dinello)
Something New (dir. Sanaa Hamri)
The Good Shepard (dir. Robert De Niro)
Apocalypto (dr. Mel Gibson)
Come Early Morning (dir. Joey Lauren Adams)
Old Joy (dir. Kelly Reichardt)
Lassie (dir. Charles Sturridge)
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (dir. Michel Hazanavicius)
After the Wedding (Efter Brylluppet) (dir. Susanne Bier)
Rescue Dawn (dir. Werner Herzog)


Thin (dir. Lauren Greenfield)
Friends with Money (dir. Nicole Holofcener)
The Namesake (dir. Mira Nair)
12:08 East of Bucharest (dir. Corneliu Porumboiu)
The Night Listener (dir. Patrick Stettne)
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (dir. Ken Loach)
12 and Holding (dir. Michael Cuesta)
This Film Is Not Yet Rated (dir. Kirby Dick)
Hamilton (dir. Matt Potterfield)
The Hoax (dir. Lasse Hallström)


2:37 (dir. Murali K. Thalluri)
Shut Up & Sing (dir. Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck)
I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With (dir. Jeff Garlin)
Venus (dir. Roger Michell)
Time (dir. Ki-duk Kim)
Hollywoodland (dir. Allen Coulter)
Fast Food Nation | A Scanner Darkly (dir. Richard Linklater)
Taking Lives (dir. D.J. Caruso)
Idiocracy (dir. Mike Judge)
Ten Canoes (dir. Rolf de Heer, Peter Djigirr and the People of Ramingining)


Black Snake Moan (dir. Craig Brewer)
Le Petit Lieutenant (dir. Xavier Beauvois)
Syndromes and a Century (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
An Inconvenient Truth (dir. Davis Guggenheim)
Breakfast on Pluto (dir. Neil Jordon)
Manderlay (dir. Lars von Trier)
V for Vendetta (dir. James McTeigue)
Sherrybaby (dir. Laurie Collyer)
Bobby (dir. Emilio Estevez)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (dir. Tom Tykwer)


Slumming (dir. Michael Glawogger)
The Prestige (dir. Christopher Nolan)
Fido (dir. Andrew Currie)
Mon Meilleur Ami (My Best Friend) (dir. Patrice Leconte)
Breaking and Entering (dir. Anthony Minghella)
Jesus Camp (dir. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady)
Dreamgirls (dir. Bill Condon)
Water (dir. Deepa Mehta)
Akeelah and the Bee (dir. Doug Atchison)
Manufactured Landscapes (dir. Jennifer Baichwal)


Flushed Away (dir. David Bowers and Sam Fell)
A Good Year (dir. Ridley Scott)
Clerks II (dir. Kevin Smith)
Das Fräulein (dir. Andrea Štaka)
Tekkonkinkreet (dir. Michael Arias)
Quinceañera (dir. Richard Glatzer)
Call Me Ahostino (dir. Christine Laurent)
Dark Blue Almost Black (dir. Daniel Sánchez Arévalo)


The Best Films of 2005

by Christopher Beaubien • April 25, 2008 • Start the Discussion!

best2005_top

The Ring Finger (L’Annulaire) (dir. Diane Bertrand)
A History of Violence (dir. David Cronenberg)
Schultze Gets The Blues (dir. Michael Schorr)
Capote (dir. Bennett Miller)
Frank Miller’s Sin City (dir. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, 2005)
The Squid and the Whale (dir. Noah Baumbach)
Me and You and Everyone We Know (dir. Miranda July)
Mysterious Skin (dir. Gregg Araki)
Duane Hopwood (dir. Matt Mulhern)
Junebug (dir. Phil Morrison)


Honourable Selection: THE BEST OF YOUTH

(dir. Marco Tullio Giordana)


Best_Before_Sun

Honourable Selection: CÉLINE AND JESSE GO DATING

Before Midnight (dir. Richard Linklater, 2013)
Before Sunset (dir. Richard Linklater, 2005)
Before Sunrise (dir. Richard Linklater, 1995)


Honourable Selection: THE BATMAN MOVIES

The Dark Knight Rises (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2012)
The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2008)
Batman Begins (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2005)
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (dir. Curt Geda, 2000)
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
(dir. Eric Radomski and Bruce W. Timm, 1993)
Batman Returns (dir. Tim Burton, 1992)
Batman (dir. Tim Burton, 1989)


Honourable Selection: The UP Documentaries

56 Up (dir. Michael Apted, 2012)
49 Up (dir. Michael Apted, 2005)
42 Up (dir. Michael Apted, 1998)
35 Up (dir. Michael Apted, 1991)
28 Up (dir. Michael Apted, 1984)
21 Up (dir. Michael Apted, 1977)
7 Plus Seven (dir. Michael Apted, 1970)
Seven Up! (dir. Paul Almond, 1964)


Honourable Selection: WALLACE & GROMIT

A Matter of Loaf and Death (dir. Nick Park, 2008)
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (dir. Nick Park, 2005)
A Close Shave (dir. Nick Park, 1995)
The Wrong Trousers (dir. Nick Park, 1993)
A Grand Day Out (dir. Nick Park, 1989)


Best_Gespenster

Honourable Selection: THE GESPENSTER TRILOGY

Yella (dir. Christian Petzold, 2007)
Gespenster (Ghosts) (dir. Christian Petzold, 2005)
The State I Am In (Die Innere Sicherheit) (dir. Christian Petzold, 2000)


The Weather Man (dir. Gore Verbinski)
Brokeback Mountain (dir. Ang Lee)
Nine Lives (dir. Rodrigo Garcí­a)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (dir. Tommy Lee Jones)
Munich (dir. Steven Spielberg)
Nuit Noire, 17 Octobre 1961 (dir. Alain Tasma)
Oldboy (dir. Chan-wook Park)
Police Beat (dir. Robinson Devor)
Saraband (dir. Ingmar Bergman)
Millions (dir. Danny Boyle)


Match Point (dir. Woody Allen)
Sweet Land (dir. Ali Selim)
Firecracker (dir. Steve Balderson)
Tokyo Godfathers (dir. Satoshi Kon)
Crash (dir. Paul Haggis)
Downfall (dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel)
Volver (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
Thumbsucker (dir. Mike Mills)
Shopgirl (dir. Anand Tucker)
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (dir. Alex Gibney)


Lord of War (dir. Andrew Niccol)
Hard Candy (dir. David Slade)
51 Birch Street (dir. Doug Block)
Eve and the Fire Horse (dir. Julia Kwan)
Yes (dir. Sally Potter)
Cache (aka Hidden) (dir. Michael Haneke)
The Upside of Anger (dir. Mike Binder)
The Puffy Chair (dir. Jay Duplass)
Funny Ha Ha (dir. Andrew Bujalski, 2002)
The 40 Year Old Virgin (dir. Judd Apatow)


Grizzly Man (dir. Werner Herzog)
The New World (dir. Terrance Malick)
Good Night, and Good Luck (dir. George Clooney)
House of Sand (dir. Andrucha Waddington)
Three… Extremes
Dumplings (Short and Full Length Version) (dir. Fruit Chan)
Cut (dir. Chan-wook Park)
Box (dir. Takashi Miike)
L’enfant (dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Syriana (dir. Stephen Gaghan)
King Kong (dir. Peter Jackson)
Tsotsi (dir. Gavin Hood)
Paradise Now (dir. Hany Abu-Assad)


The Matador (dir. Richard Shepard)
Look Both Ways (dir. Sarah Watt)
The Constant Gardener (dir. Fernando Meirelles)
Prime (dir. Ben Younger)
Hustle & Flow (dir. Craig Brewer)
North Country (dr. Niki Caro)
Our Daily Bread (dir. Nikolaus Geyrhalter)
Three Times (dir. Hsiao-hsien Hou)
Pride & Prejudice (dir. Joe Wright)
Thank You for Smoking (dir. Jason Reitman)


Lemming (dir. Dominik Moll)
Broken Flowers (dir. Jim Jarmusch)
Forty Shades of Blue (dir. Ira Sachs)
Separate Lies (dir. Julian Fellowes)
Le Grand Voyage (dir. Ismaël Ferroukhi)
Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (dir. Adrian Shergold)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (dir. Mike Newell)
Duma (dir. Carroll Ballard)
Murderball (dir. Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro)
The Heart of the Game (dir. Ward Serrill)


Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (dir. Marc Rothemund)
Off the Map (dir. Campbell Scott)
Mrs Henderson Presents (dir. Stephen Frears)
Thieves of Innocence (dir. Paul Arcand)
The Greatest Game Ever Played (dir. Bill Paxton)
Game 6 (dir. Michael Hoffman)
Walk the Line (dir. James Mangold)
Fever Pitch (dir. Bobby and Peter Farrelly)
Green Street Hooligans (dir. Lexi Alexander)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (dir. Scott Derrickson)


Corpse Bride (dir. Tim Burton and Mike Johnson)
The Aristocrats (dir. Paul Provenza)
Jarhead (dir. Sam Mendes)
Battle in Heaven (dir. Carlos Reygadas)
Gabrielle (dir. Patrice Chéreau)
Reel Paradise (dir. Steve James)
Stay (dir. Marc Forster)
March of the Penguins (dir. Luc Jacquet)
Where the Truth Lies (dir. Atom Egoyan)
Tupac: Resurrection (dir. Lauren Lazin)


Lady Vengence (dir. Chan-wook Park)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (dir. Tim Burton)
The Motel (dir. Michael Kang)
Wah-Wah (dir. Richard E. Grant)
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (dir. Liam Lynch)
The World’s Fastest Indian (dir. Roger Donaldson)
Havoc (dir. Barbara Kopple)
Sky High (dir. Mike Mitchell)
Domino (dir. Tony Scott)
Cinderella Man (dir. Ron Howard)


MirrorMask (dir. Dave McKean)
Bee Season (dir. Scott McGehee and David Siegel)
Ellie Parker (dir. Scott Coffey)
The Ballad of Jack and Rose (dir. Rebecca Miller)
In Her Shoes (dir. Curtis Hanson)
Funky Forest: The First Contact (dir. Katsuhito Ishii and Hajime Ishimine)
The Skeleton Key (dir. Iain Softley)
The Girl from Monday (dir. Hal Hartley)