trailer trash - Blue Valentine

I've been a fan of Ryan Gosling since " Michelle Williams since Dawson's & now that the Motion Picture Association of America has slapped it with an NC-17 rating on it. I've been eagerly awaiting any news and the release of this film since it premiered at The Cannes Film Festival in May and has been dubbed as one of the most "utterly devastating completely believable marriage drama[s]," which be unappealing to most people, but I for some reason can't get enough of them.

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trailer trash - Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom is an Australian indie crime-drama that was the winner of the World Cinema Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival (which means it was the best independent film in the world, while Winter's Bone is the best American Film according to Sundance.) I can't wait to check this film out.

trailer trash - Winter's Bone

Winter's Bone heated up at The Sundance Film Festival this year and won the Grand Jury Prize & continued to garner even more buzz during the Cannes Film Festival over newcomer Jennifer Lawrence's performance. This movie may just look like another doom and gloom indie, but I can't wait to check it out.

Crazy Heart Review

Since it's awards season & I'm too caught up in seeing the next potential Oscar winner and just not in the mood to write reviews they're all going to be short & sweet.

Jeff Bridges plays a down on his luck, alcoholic country singer, Bad Blake, who happens to meet and fall for a music journalist played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. The soundtrack is stellar (soundtrack svengali T. Bone Burnett worked on it) as are the performances and Bridges will undoubtedly be nominated for the that gold bald statue come March. All and all this is a solid music movie (e.g it's really all about the man & the music) with a love story in the backdrop.


My rating: 8.9/10

"District - 9" Review

I saw District 9 the weekend it opened and still find myself thinking about it. I found it incredibly original, riveting, action packed, and full of heart. So it was nice to see a film that lived up to all the hyped that surrounded it, as well as the expectations I set up for myself.

My rating: 9.2/10

trailer trash - The Box

I loved Donnie Darko but this looks just too kooky for me

trailer trash - Adam

I had a chance to see a sneak preview of this movie on Thursday, but wasn't able to make it. I love me some Hugh Dancy and random information, but I think I'm going to wait to rent this flick.

trailer trash - An Education

After basking in the beauty of France throughout Chéri and figuring out plans to head across the pond in a couple of weeks, the trailer for An Education makes me giddy. This film was a fan favorite at Sudance and I'm hoping it's as good as it looks.

"Moon" Review

Moon takes place in the not so distant future when "Helium -3"is mined on the moon and sent back to earth to provide us energy. The film follows a man named Sam Bell, played by the always brilliant, Sam Rockwell, who is the sole man that works at the site, and has 2 more weeks left on his 3 year contract and can't wait to get home. The only company Sam has is a computer named Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey in a blatant homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL.) Though after Sam is injured after thinking he sees something while out collecting Helium 3, another guy named Sam shows up and things get really weird.
I love Sam Rockwell & he is in every single scene of the movie, which he definiely pulls off, but the pacing is incredibly slow and 97 minutes felt more like 197. It was definitely a thought provoking film, directed by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones, but the most glorious thing about it was Gary Shaw's cinematography & that shred of hope that I held on to that there'd be some Bowie on the soundtrack or even a minor reference to The Man Who Fell to Earth.

My rating: 8.2/10

Exclusive Clip: Zooey Deschanel Not Interested in Being Your Girlfriend, in "500 Days of Summer"

I've mentioned 500 Days of Summer on more than 1 occassion in the past and am about to again, now that there's an exclusive clip from the movie available at New York Magazine online.

"In theaters July 17 is 500 Days of Summer, a love story (sort of) starring
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a greeting-card copywriter retracing the steps of his
failed relationship with Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel. Fox Searchlight has
given us this exclusive clip, in which Deschanel explains that she's not
interested in having a boyfriend, to the disappointment of Gordon-Levitt and the
befuddlement of Geoffrey Arend (real-life fiancé of Mad Men's Christina
Hendricks). "[Exclusive Clip: Zooey Deschanel Not Interested in Being Your Girlfriend, in 500 Days of Summer -- Vulture -- Entertainment & Culture Blog -- New York Magazine]

trailer trash - Paper Heart

This sweet, endearing, quirky "meta-documentary-cum-romance [called] Paper Heart, follows Michael Cera's inamorata Charlyne Yi and her quest to discover what love really is" according to Entertainment Weekly (who happens to be totally obsessed with this flick already.)

trailer trash - Breaking Upwards

I just heard about Breaking Upwards from a co-worker who caught it at SXSW this year. This charming and heart wrenchcing independent film that "follows a young New York couple who, after four years together, have grown stifled. Desperate to escape their ennui, but fearful of life apart, they decide to intricately strategize their own break up. "

Though the film hasn't found major distribution yet, it's playing at Film Festivals around the country and I can't wait to catch it at one of them, or whenever it finally makes it to theaters or DVD. In the meantime, I guess I'll just have to watch THE greatest rom-com of all time.

trailer trash - Moon

Praise an Almighty Power for giving the world Adam Smith, and I sure as F don't mean the father of modern economics. My dear friend, Mr. Smith, an absolutely darling young man not only shares my love of Keira Knightley, but also has absolute respect for the man, the myth, the legend, Sam Rockwell. Adam turned me on to Sam's latest, film Moon an independent sci-fi endeavor that looks enthralling.

trailer trash - My Suicide

I first heard about My Suicide, when my boss came back from South By South West. It also played at The Gen Art Film Festival that just ended in New York. The film hasn't gotten domestic distribution yet, but is certainly garnering a lot of buzz and has an innovataive and bold premise:

MY SUICIDE is a dark, romantic teen comedy about Archie Williams, an isolated
high school geek, who becomes the most popular kid in the school when he
announces he's going to kill himself on camera for his final video class
project. As word spreads, Archie's classmates, parents, the most beautiful girl
in school, Sierra, and a "Shady Bunch" of teachers, shrinks, doctors,
pill-pushers and counselors bombard him - some hoping to save him, some wanting
to imitate him, others trying to push him over the edge.

My Suicide Trailer from Gen Art Film on Vimeo.

"Rachel Getting Married" Review

So I saw "Rachel Getting Married" last night to kill sometime before The Rolling Stone party for Takashi Murakami at the Gansevoort South. And was riveted by how subtle, yet in your face the film was. It stars Anne Hathaway, who plays Kym, a drug addict who has just been released from rehab and is heading home for the weekend for her older sister's wedding.

Rachel's fiance is a musician, and actually portrayed by Tunde Adebimpe, the lead singer of TV on the Radio, so the movie is full of music and musicians who are part of the wedding party and are constantly filling the air, and the film with sweet melodies, that resonate throughout the duration of the film and play with such relaxed passion you can see thay they are truly relishing in the celebration and joyous event that is the wedding. When the movie was over I certainly thought is was pretty great and didn't really think about it, but now that I've had a chance to let it linger in my mind, the film was really lovely and beautifully executed by an incredily believable ensemble cast, no wonder there's all kinds of buzz - especially Oscar- surrounding Anna Hathaway's performance,the director Jonathan Demme and first time Screen Writer Jenny Lumet. The film is certainly dramatic and not as dark as it could have been considering the subject matter, but it certainly addresses the many issues each character has with one another and how in the end, sometimes all you really have his family. My rating: 8.7/10

trailer trash- Synecdoche, New York... (also known as the new Charlie Kaufman movie that sucks)

synecdoche, new york is the new charlie kaufman movie, starring philip seymour hoffman, catherine keener, michelle williams, hope davis and is mr. kaufman's directorial debut. it's apparently super meta, because there's a play within the movie, and the people in the play are actually actors playing real people who in turn are involved with the play and people in hoffman's characters life, because the play about his life but the play becomes his life, and there's no audience... or something like that.

Owen Glieberman, one of the critics i most agree with/respect, of Entertainment Weekly gave it a D+ and said:

I gave up making heads or tails of Synecdoche, New York, but I did get one
message: The compulsion to stand outside of one's life and observe it to this
degree isn't the mechanism of art — it's the structure of psychosis.

anyway, here's the trailer i'll probably check this out on video...or not at all.

Choke Review

i saw Choke over 2 weeks ago and just never got around to writing a review. it's not that i wasn't desperate to share how great the movie was, just other things came up and i kind of wanted to keep this brilliant little gem to myself. i was inducted into the Cult of Palahniuck a decade ago when Fight Club was released. both the film and the novel changed my life, in ways i won't go into to detail but i will say for the better. now that i'm a little older and pretend to be a lot wiser, Choke has had a similar effect on me that Fight Club and magnifies that we're all kind of F-ed up. in Choke Palahniuck once again focuses on the affect dysfuntional relationships have on our entire lives, and how integral they are to finding our identity, true selves and the possibility of sharing that with another. with that out of the way, i have to say the movie was hilarious, Sam Rockwell was out of of this world, Kelly MacDonald was incadescent (as always,) and as we've learned from numerous Wes Anderson films Anjelica Huston is the best woman to play a mother caught up in the midst of mayhem. i also have to add that Clark Gregg did an excellent job as writer, director and co-star which is not an easy feat, while also making a great film that's only 90 minutes long, that also has an equally fantastic soundtrack. if you still have the chance to go see Choke, do so immediately, otherwise pre-order it on Netflix or Amazon, it's that good. My rating 8.4/10