If You Haven't Been Out To See Fay Grim At The Cinema...

...then I hope you're buying the DVD. Out today.

Discuss

I recently received a comment on a piece here, on the second Dark Knight script piece, that called me 'sad' for making any kind of judgment about the film on the basis of a fraction of the script. I made a reply there, and I want to copy it here because I think it is an interesting debate.

If it truly is silly to a judge a film in ANY way on the basis of these sides, then nobody should EVER walk out of a film early, or make a judgment on whether or not they'd enjoy a film from the trailer, or from a book, perhaps that the film is based upon.

Here are the pieces I have: an understanding of Christopher Nolan's previous work, and his approaches to mise en scene, his blocking of scenes, his tendencies in montage and so on; an understanding of his brother's previous scripts; these pages.

They indicate something. Something inconclusive and sometimes vague, sure - but it is an indicator, for sure, of the final film.

Much like looking at somebody's grades before you hire them for a job. These grades simply do not and never can attest to this individuals abilty to do this job, but they DO indicate a likelihood of success or failure in certain, specific areas. Vaguely indicate, maybe - but indicate nontheless.

That was it. So, are people silly to be excited for, say, Transfomers after seeing the trailers? Or to find the Fay Grim poster intriguing and want to see the film on this basis? Can turning on the TV and catching a film part way through, then watching for three minutes until the commercial break interrputs ever actually tell you anything about the film? At all?

That's the argument. I look forward to receiving any comments.

Will Fay Grim Be Hal Hartley's Crossover Film?

Fay Grim might be a thoroughly unlikely sequel, but I predict that it has an outside chance of becoming an even more unlikely hit. Well... the new trailer certainly looks appealing from a straight-down-the-middle perspective. Either that or I'm just out of touch.

The film will be in cinemas across the US on May 18th, the same day it permieres on HDNet and then, four days later the DVD will be in stores. This kind of (almost) day-and-date release is reported to be a real killer, crippling any film's hope of success, but I'm not convinced. I think the figures might be getting skewed in the reporting. We'll need a new way of looking at the stats to see how these films really do.

Fay Grim Poster

There's a whole lot of straight horizontals in the bottom half of this Fay Grim poster. It's virtually false advertising.

I cannot wait to see this film.

Fay Grim Trailer Is Beautifully Wonky

Filmjunk posted a nice link to a Fay Grim trailer. Now you can see for yourself just what happened when Hal Hartley decided a level horizon was an overrated thing and sawed half a leg off of his tripod.

Like the editing in this trailer? Snip artist Kyle Gilman has a showreel online too.

I'm Not Going To Sundance, But...

Of course, I'm not going to Sundance. I wish that I could, but I can't. Maybe in 2009, and maybe with a film of my own. Fingers crossed.

But... let's pretned that I am about to pack my bags and head off to Sundance. Which films do I most want to see? Let's keep this to three films. My top three picks of the Sundance line-up in ascending order - based purely on the films' pedigrees, pre-release promotional materials and any clips or trailers I may have been able to find.

Third position goes to Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan. Elisabeth has already reviewed the film for this blog, and she certainly did a good job of fanning the flames of anticipation, but I've been counting down to this film ever since the opening credits of Hustle and Flow. That's when I was first convinved that Brewer not only knew what he was doing, he cared deeply about it too.

Terence Howard pretty much nailed a tricky part in Flow, but the roles dished out to Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci in Black Snake Moan appear to require an even more precarious tightrope walk. By all accounts, however, at least one of them has pulled it off, and with flair. It's going to be good to see Jackson take on a solid, complex part again after a few years playing in the actors' sandbox.

Overall, this one gives me the impression of a sweatier Holy Smoke, dressed up in trampy, stained clothes and raging like a manic street preacher.

Second position goes to Fay Grim, Hal Hartley's sequel to Henry Fool. Critics who have been lucky enough to see the film already - it premiered in Toronto - have generally disliked the film, accusing Hartley of treading water and having nothing new to say. If that's their criticism, we have nothing to worry about. It's obvious from some of the stills, and certainly clips of the film, that Hartley has taken a new approach in the cinematography, using digital cameras mixing a little bit of German Expressionism into the mise en scene; and, as regards the content, his irreverent spy caper seems nothing if not timely.



I'm sure Parker Posey, Jeff Goldblum and James Urbaniak haven't had anything so fun to really get their teeth stuck into for quite a while. Here's hoping this film's release reinvigorates press coverage of Hartley and pumps up his profile once again.

And, so, finally, first position.

If you've been paying attention to film ick, this won't surprise you. My number one choice of the Sundance line-up (bearing in mind that I've only seen a handful of the films being screened - and that none of those made this list) is undoubtedly Son of Rambow.

There's been a wave of films about young people and their imagination-saturated inner lives of late, from Mirrormask to Tideland to Pan's Labyrinth, even maybe Little Miss Sunshine (in part, at least). It's fair to say that Son of Rambow follows in this line, but certainly not in the same style. And not only because this time it's a young boy, and a young boy's imagination, in the spotlight.

I first read about Son of Rambow some years ago when it was, I believe, set to be the debut film from Hammer and Tongs - director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith - but since then, they've made, released and been criminally underrated in regards to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Generally brilliant though it was, I'll agree that Guide was an inarguably flawed film - but almost everything wrong with it is also wrong with the source book, TV and radio shows so that can't be pressed hard against Jennings and his collaborators. Looking at how Jennings designed, staged and directed many of the scenes, it was abundantly clear that the wit and imagination that overflowed in his music video and commercial work was intact and married to the necessary subtle craftsmanship. We were obviously dealing filmmaker who thought in genuinely cinematic fashion but had no desire to wow with hollow flash - and they're far too rare a breed.
Son of Rambow comes from a story by Jennings himself, and while it isn't clear just how autobiographical the film might be, the temptation is to assume that the answer is 'quite a bit, actually' - with no foundation for that supposition at all, of course. The lead character is Will, a young lad being brought up in a Plymouth Brethren family during the 1980s. He's denied TV and music as part of his upbringing, so when he meets rabble-rousing classroom-terrorist and bizzaro-mondo home movie maker Lee Carter at school, he's in for quite a culture shock. Before long, they're forging a friendship and collaborating on a video - Lee is directing, Will is the stuntman lead, the movie is Son of Rambow.



This seems to mix elements you might find War of the Buttons, Be Kind, Rewind, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and the true story of 'those kids who famously restaged Raiders of the Lost Ark' but under Jennings' direction, it's bound to be something brand new and full of wonder. I asked him about the film being included in the Sundance line-up and here's what he had to say:

I am flattered that Son of Rambow is your choice film for Sundance een though you haven't seen it yet. In fact, I haven't seen it totally finished yet either. I'm sitting in the dubbing theatre mixing the final reel of the film as I write this and despite nearly shattering my ear bones during a big action sequence, it's going extremely well. This time last year no bugger would finance this film so being given a premier slot at Sundance is quite a triumph for us. Nick and I are so proud of the film. I really don't know if we've ever captured so closely what we imagined before. Directors often talk about their films as being their 'baby' and if this is the case, then ours would have all it's fingers and toes, always smile - even at strangers - never need it's nappy changed and would be called Jesus (which would make Nick and I Mary and Joseph. Maybe I should have thought this stupid analogy through first!).

Hopefully, Son of Rambow will secure a nice, big distribution deal at Sundance and be hyped onto screens worldwide in the next few months. I can't wait to see something of it - there's hardly even a still out there so far, let alone a trailer or clips - and as soon as I do, I'll be updating you.

Anybody out there who sees any of these films at Sundance - or any others - please drop me a line and let me know what you thought.

Sundance Gems

Here are my picks from the non-competitive Sundance 2007 line-up:

Son of Rambow. Garth Jennings new film, oft covered here at film ick and likely to be on of 2007's best films. It's yet another coming of age story, sure, but looks to be a very original one and Jennings is a very gifted filmmaker.

Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan, with Sam Jackson and Christina Ricci. After Hustle and Flow, Brewer's got a Sundance rep to live up to, but this film seems certain to disappoint. I'm not saying that because I expect it to be bad, mind - just that I expect it to be rather different to Hustle and that's going to be enough to disappoint some people.

The Go-Getter has a great young cast - alumni of Thumbsucker, Contact and Almost Famous.

Written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly, Waitress also has a great cast - this time featuring alumni of Serenity, May, Schizopolis and... er... Matlock. Actually Matlock from Matlock, too.

Fido is about keeping a zombie as a pet. If only it were a how-to documentary and not fiction, this would rocket to the top of my list.

Its Fine! Everything is Fine! is co-directed by Crispin Glover, and co-written by Glover and Steven C. Stewart. Stewart suffers from the severe cerebal palsy and this autobiographical film will explore how this has effected his relationships with the opposite sex. Countercultural with a capital C, if Glover is to be believed.

Fay Grim is Hal Hartley's semi-sequel to Henry Fool and stars Parker Posey - what more do you need to know?

Bob Shaye's The Last Mimzy was co-written by Bruce Joel Rubin who, until now at least, has written scripts far, far better than the films they became - Ghost, My Life, Jacob's Ladder.

There will also be some films I've already seen, such as Longford, as in Lord Longford, and with the lead played by Jim Broadbent. The film was directed by Tom Hooper from another superb script by Peter Morgan. It screened on Channel 4 here in the UK, and I enjoyed it very much indeed - the script was better, certainly, than The Queen, Morgan's other film this year, but, sadly, Hooper is no Stephen Frears.

Luc Besson's Angel-A is one half of the director's comeback pair and, though I found it a little uneven, it was certainly imaginative and enjoyable enough to give me hope for Arthur and the Invisibles, even in the face of it's dreadful cgi.