Posts Tagged ‘Brad Pitt’

Short Take: Utterly ineffable, yet readily comprehensible. Unlike anything you’ve ever seen

Director: Terrence Malick

Screenwriter: Terrence Malick

Cast: Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Sean Penn

Length: 2h 18m

Synopsis: The era is 1950s America. Mr. O’Brien (Pitt) is an old-fashioned man who, like his father before him, adopted the kind of parenting skills that, looking back, leave a bit to be desired. He cares for his wife (Chastain) and three sons, but his disciplinary methods and anger issues prevent too strong of a connection from forming between them – at least not in the same sense that parents nowadays are expected to achieve. The eldest son, Jack (McCracken), goes through a sort of coming of age process that involves learning various exceptional and unexceptional life lessons, mostly by way of observing his father, mother, brothers, and friends. This family story is also at certain intervals juxtaposed with scenes showing the creation of the universe, extinction of the dinosaurs, and several biblical references. To be sure, it is very much an avant garde film; using montage at certain points not too unlike what Eisenstein might have enjoyed, as well as narrative temporality that likens back to the French New Wave. It belongs with the class of films that can be described as being like a Rorschach test: you will understand it best from your own perspective, and feel sensitivity in whichever ways correlate with that perspective. It is not necessarily whatever you want it to be, but it is dramatically more abstract than anything else Terrence Malick has done.

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Gossip magazines like this Photoplay have been around since the dawn of the film industry, but why are they so popular?

For as long as I can remember I have been enormously bewildered as to why so many people find gossip publications like The Inquirer, People Magazine, Star Magazine, and US Weekly so appealing. Beyond having a lack of interest in fashion I fail to recognize the purpose behind holding celebrities’ figures and overall looks under a microscope; praising one on a given week and criticizing them the next. And aside from all of this I also fall short of understanding the undying interest in celebrities’ social and romantic lives. This is not all to say that I consider celebrities uninteresting, quite the contrary, however the sex life of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is not anywhere near the top million interests I have in the film industry and the people who are part of it.

But why is this? Why do so many people follow the romantic storylines of celebrities’ lives? All judgments aside, because for many the interest is indeed a guilty and harmless pleasure, the answers could lie in the history of the film industry – particularly the history of the “star system.” Read the rest of this entry »

Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is arguably the most stylized retelling of the Dracula story to date

With vampire craze still in full swing due to the enormous hit that has been New Moon, the same production studio that financed that film has let it be known that it will now finance a remake of the story of Dracula. The project is called Vlad, written by Charlie Hunnam (actor on FX’s Sons of Anarchy), and is focused on Dracula as a young prince (with Vlad the Impaler of course being the inspiration for the character). Music video director Anthony Mandler (Rhianna, The Killers, Eminem) will be helming the project, with Brad Pitt producing. Reportedly, the film is set to have the same degree of stylization as 2006′s 300, which executives at Summit are excited about. The casting of the role of Vlad is expected to be an unknown.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Quick Opinion: As it turns out, we at Movie-Thoughts got our wish for a remake of Dracula, although having it made by Summit, starring an unknown, and captained by a music video director wasn’t exactly what we had in mind. However, here’s the silver lining: Summit is still small enough to not fall under the pressure of big studio-type paranoia (i.e. they can financially afford to be bolder and more daring with their creativity), unknown actors like Brandon Routh have proven that a no-name can indeed carry the weight of an iconic role, and Spike Jonze has proven that a music video director is capable of telling wonderful stories very skillfully. The odds that Vlad will have the same level of performances and direction as the names just listed can only be speculated, but it’s good to think positive.