Monday, November 14, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Restless Movie 2011
Easily the first hard flop of the Cannes Film Festival, the warning signs were there but perhaps we didn’t pay them much mind. If everything had gone according to the original plan, “Restless” would have already come and gone in theaters and never hit the Croisette. And that probably would have been the better for everyone involved. Instead, a rightfully nervous Sony scuttled a planned January release and shuffled the film over to their indie division Sony Pictures Classics to handle. Kudos for them for getting the film into the opening slot of the Un Certain Regard section of the festival, because after seeing it, that must have been nothing short of a coup.
So what happens for the next interminable hour or so is an endless string of reveals. Both Henry and Annabel each seem to get multiple confession scenes, where they reveal something (quite obvious) about why they have their innumerous quirks, but two things about them you already know: Henry is friends with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot named Hiroshi (Ryo Kase), while Annabel has terminal cancer. But don’t let that stop the cuteness! Annabel, without hesitation, starts rolling with Henry to funerals and the two strike up a distinctly unique relationship that revolves entirely around lovey dovey talk that, due to both of their morbid streaks, is framed around death, blood transfusions and ghosts. Awww. It’s interesting—for a moment—but each death tinged come hither becomes staler and staler to the point where you just want to throttle someone to speak a line that would resemble something anybody would actually say.
At one point, even Gus Van Sant seems bored by his own movie so let’s cue up a montage with our lovely duo embarking on a bunch of new activities together! With no jobs and no money, these two cutie pies seem to have found a vintage clothing goldmine, because we’re pretty sure if we bought half the stuff Annabel was wearing for our girlfriend, we’d be flat broke. Any costume design enthusiasts take note—there is a beautiful little sequence in here for you. But the tailor-made-for-indie-approval goodness doesn’t end there. The film boasts a score by Danny Elfman—which isn’t too surprising considering Annabel is pretty much a variation of Lydia from “Beetlejuice”—that basically sounds like something Mark Mothersbaugh would’ve written. And in case the already flatly mapped emotional beats aren’t thuddingly obvious, Iron & Wine and Sufjan Stevens are there on the soundtrack to make sure you know exactly what to feel. Oh, but we’ve saved the best for last. The film ends on a fucking montage (another one!) set to Nico‘s “These Days.” Whoever music supervised this movie should be fired. We shouldn’t have to tell you the Wes Anderson connection, but in a movie that floats by with a big of whiff of insincerity and pandering to begin with, that moment puts the nail in the damn coffin, tosses it in the grave and pours the dirt on. And moreover, coming not so after a long extended scene in which the characters literally decried sappy movie-like death scenes, it’s as if Van Sant just gave up. Hell, even ace cinematographer and longtime Van Sant collaborrator Harris Savides seemed to be going through the motions behind the camera.
Running a scant 90 minutes, almost every element of “Restless” feels like the script needed another pass. The character development is shortchanged on nearly every corner. Annabel’s mother is introduced as a borderline alcoholic in one scene and then disappears completely only to reappear near the end of the film rather uselessly. We’re not really sure why it’s in there at all since she has no bearing on the plot or Annabel. Aunt Mabel (a sorely underutilized Jane Adams) is raising Henry, but the only indication of how much she sacrificed to take him under her roof is revealed with two sentences far too late in the picture. Henry also happens to have an aversion to cars—the reason why we won’t spoil here—but one key sequence (which also happens to be on the back of yet another reveal, natch) forces him to have to get into a car but there is no moment set aside to consider how monumental this actually is. Instead, he gets car sick and then embarks on an elaborate pretend game with Annabel in a foggy forest immediately after.
And that’s exactly what “Restless” feels like: a game. It’s a game of spotting the references and then sitting there, jaw dropped, as they are skated over, as if by simply nodding at them the film gains instant credibly and insight. Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. Hooper and Wasikowska are game but they are let down by a script that doesn’t offer them too much more to do that make saucer eyes at each other over increasingly tired and self-aware dialogue. As for Van Sant, this certainly isn’t a commerical movie—it’s easy to see why Sony didn’t bother; as romances go, it’s pretty weird—but it’s not his movie at all either. It could have been any number of Wes Anderson clones knocking their way around film school that directed this and we wouldn’t have been any the wiser. The only thing “Restless” offers is the titular feeling you’re going to have enduring this at your local arthouse. [D]
It’s hard to know where the film was foiled—whether it was in Gus Van Sant‘s completely anonymous direction or the derivative script by Jason Lew—but “Restless” wears its amalgam of influences on its sleeve yet has no idea what makes them special. The film starts with a nod to “The Graduate” is what is a bit of a reversal on the reference. As Simon & Garfunkel sing, Enoch (Henry Hopper) sits on the back of a bus headed to a funeral. Cut from the same cloth that made Harold in “Harold & Maude,” Henry is a bit of a gloomy soul, crashing funerals for reasons that are initially unclear. After his latest clandestine attendance at a memorial service he meets Annabel (Mia Wasikowska), a Mia Farrow-circa-”Rosemary’s Baby”-haired young girl who immediately and directly calls him out for the hobby. And as it happens in movies, is also completely smitten with him. The two circle each other warily at first, but are obviously attracted to each other, but yet, they each have their own dark secrets.
So what happens for the next interminable hour or so is an endless string of reveals. Both Henry and Annabel each seem to get multiple confession scenes, where they reveal something (quite obvious) about why they have their innumerous quirks, but two things about them you already know: Henry is friends with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot named Hiroshi (Ryo Kase), while Annabel has terminal cancer. But don’t let that stop the cuteness! Annabel, without hesitation, starts rolling with Henry to funerals and the two strike up a distinctly unique relationship that revolves entirely around lovey dovey talk that, due to both of their morbid streaks, is framed around death, blood transfusions and ghosts. Awww. It’s interesting—for a moment—but each death tinged come hither becomes staler and staler to the point where you just want to throttle someone to speak a line that would resemble something anybody would actually say.
At one point, even Gus Van Sant seems bored by his own movie so let’s cue up a montage with our lovely duo embarking on a bunch of new activities together! With no jobs and no money, these two cutie pies seem to have found a vintage clothing goldmine, because we’re pretty sure if we bought half the stuff Annabel was wearing for our girlfriend, we’d be flat broke. Any costume design enthusiasts take note—there is a beautiful little sequence in here for you. But the tailor-made-for-indie-approval goodness doesn’t end there. The film boasts a score by Danny Elfman—which isn’t too surprising considering Annabel is pretty much a variation of Lydia from “Beetlejuice”—that basically sounds like something Mark Mothersbaugh would’ve written. And in case the already flatly mapped emotional beats aren’t thuddingly obvious, Iron & Wine and Sufjan Stevens are there on the soundtrack to make sure you know exactly what to feel. Oh, but we’ve saved the best for last. The film ends on a fucking montage (another one!) set to Nico‘s “These Days.” Whoever music supervised this movie should be fired. We shouldn’t have to tell you the Wes Anderson connection, but in a movie that floats by with a big of whiff of insincerity and pandering to begin with, that moment puts the nail in the damn coffin, tosses it in the grave and pours the dirt on. And moreover, coming not so after a long extended scene in which the characters literally decried sappy movie-like death scenes, it’s as if Van Sant just gave up. Hell, even ace cinematographer and longtime Van Sant collaborrator Harris Savides seemed to be going through the motions behind the camera.
Running a scant 90 minutes, almost every element of “Restless” feels like the script needed another pass. The character development is shortchanged on nearly every corner. Annabel’s mother is introduced as a borderline alcoholic in one scene and then disappears completely only to reappear near the end of the film rather uselessly. We’re not really sure why it’s in there at all since she has no bearing on the plot or Annabel. Aunt Mabel (a sorely underutilized Jane Adams) is raising Henry, but the only indication of how much she sacrificed to take him under her roof is revealed with two sentences far too late in the picture. Henry also happens to have an aversion to cars—the reason why we won’t spoil here—but one key sequence (which also happens to be on the back of yet another reveal, natch) forces him to have to get into a car but there is no moment set aside to consider how monumental this actually is. Instead, he gets car sick and then embarks on an elaborate pretend game with Annabel in a foggy forest immediately after.
And that’s exactly what “Restless” feels like: a game. It’s a game of spotting the references and then sitting there, jaw dropped, as they are skated over, as if by simply nodding at them the film gains instant credibly and insight. Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. Hooper and Wasikowska are game but they are let down by a script that doesn’t offer them too much more to do that make saucer eyes at each other over increasingly tired and self-aware dialogue. As for Van Sant, this certainly isn’t a commerical movie—it’s easy to see why Sony didn’t bother; as romances go, it’s pretty weird—but it’s not his movie at all either. It could have been any number of Wes Anderson clones knocking their way around film school that directed this and we wouldn’t have been any the wiser. The only thing “Restless” offers is the titular feeling you’re going to have enduring this at your local arthouse. [D]
Restless online 2011
For many Americans the most memorable images of Beijing are still the grandly austere pictures of Tiananmen Square transmitted on television during the 1989 protests for democratic reform. Jule Gilfillan But sentimentale''''Restless romantic comedy shows, China's capital is on its way to becoming a modern metropolis full of apartment complexes and neon lights flashing usual corporate logos. Filmed in Beijing in 1997 ,'''' restless uses more than 40 sites around the capital. In one scene a character skateboards through the 500 - year-old Forbidden City.
Billed as the first English language film to be filmed in contemporary Beijing and the first US-China co-production,''Restless''naturligvis had to skirt sensitive issues to cooperate with the Chinese government. Fairly predictable, it turns out to be an entirely apolitical film devoted to international romance and conflicting cultural traditions.
The central character, Leah Quinn (Catherine Kellner) is an American blonde, attractive in their 20s who speaks Chinese and has lived and worked in Beijing for three years. Continually disappointed in love, Leah suffers from a combination of nostalgia and self-esteem, and Ms. Kellner plays the character with a sharp edge whiners. After Leah discovers her latest boyfriend, the trunk, which spent much of the rest of the film in Beijing lamenting SNIT.
That helps to raise her out of landfills is a local television program, which offers instruction in Weiqi, a Chinese variant of chess, whose strategies of earnest young instructor Master Sun Zhan (Geng Le) insists can be applied to life situations. Leah engaged him to teach the game, so you can use techniques to win back her boyfriend. But the teacher and student quickly form a romantic attachment, and he shows his appearance in Beijing, he never knew existed.
While Leah follows her usual impulse to rush love, cool, cerebral Sun Zhan maintains a careful, critical distance. At one point accusing its treatment in Beijing for his personal amusement park. His estimate is not far from the mark.
In a parallel story involves Richard Kao (David Wu), a 26 year old Chinese-American from Southern California who is en''Homicide''baseball cap, a skateboard, and drops the word from Guy too many times for comfort, visits Beijing for the first time. He brings with him an urn with the ashes of his grandfather with instructions to take them to an ancestral burial ground in the provinces. In the first of a series of comic incidents, a gust of wind blowing away the ashes as Richard arrives at the airport. While in the apartment of his Chinese family, he develops a serious flirtation with his pretty but sheltered cousin, Lin Qing Qing (Chen Shiang-Chyi).
Puritan respect for the feelings of the Chinese, these crushes are softened to the point that cultures the relationship seems to be consumed, and this timidity gives the drama, without hesitation. Character potentially interesting old grandmother of Richard, who has survived many difficulties, and all types of political turmoil. But the script offers few clues disturbing historical events he has seen.
For all of its reservation that,''Restless''capte part of the excitement of the romance of youth in which the partners are not just separate individuals but the products of divergent cultures. And although the film is far from spectacular, the film offers a tantalizing start of the tour in China's capital city.
Restless
Directed by Jule Gilfillan, written by Ms. Gilfillan, based on a story he wrote with Peter Shiao, director of photography, Yang Shu; Folmer Wiesinger edit music, Laura Karpman by production designer, Cao Jiu Ping, produced by Mr. Shiao, published by Arrow features. Duration: 98 minutes. This film is not rated.
Starring: Catherine Kellner (Leah Quinn), David Wu (Richard Kao), Sarita Choudhury (Jane Talwani), Geng Le (Master Sun Zhan), Josh Lucas (Jeff Hollingsworth), Chen Shiang-Chyi (Lin Qing Qing) and Matthew Faber (Ben Gold).
Restless Movie Online
The Restless is a Korean fantasy action epic by director Jo Dong Oh. The story brings in years of decline in the Silla Dynasty. The main character is Yi Kwak (Jung Woo Sung), a Royal team with the ability to see ghosts. The platoon is to fight demons and corrupt courts. In a battle, all members but Yi Kwak died. Tucked away in a sanctuary, he arrived at the entrance to purgatory, where souls live for 49 days before reincarnation. He met then Hwa (Kim Tae Hee), a goddess who looks a lot like her lover died. So Hwa, who guards the gates between the mortal realm and purgatory, is thrown into danger when an army of restless spirits attempt to return to the land of the living. Yi Kwak comes to her rescue, only to find the army led by his former teammates.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Restless Movie Online (2011)
Restless Movie Online (2011) , Once you've seen Gus Van Sant is restless, you get the shuffle to the distributor has made films in recent months, says a lot about what the film is. It is the best film of the specialty of the film positioned by Sony Pictures Classics, or if it is a little 'more fun, but more serious romantic drama, Columbia Pictures? Sony has decided to submit it to the first, after which it was originally published in January. They understood?
Sony's dilemma is represented here in front of the sound of a conflict of the drama that does not really seem to figure itself out. Just when you think it will take to find its way to the left, only fragments of the first to bring with himself. At the end you have been pulled in many directions, it's time to take with you very shortly. Some might argue this is the result of the movies that belong to the path of the main characters, and I agree, but not necessarily the road ends consequently leading anywhere much, and the only one we have not traveled before T.
The story revolves Anna (Mia Wasikowska) and Enoch (Henry Hopper), a couple of guys late, as buried in a variety of reasons, even though both are facing the demons, the clock of death. Enoch crashes during the funeral while he was still trying to cope with the loss of his parents died in a car accident - that almost took his own life as well. And to make matters worse, he spends most of the time, Hiroshi (Ryo Kase), a Japanese kamikaze pilot ghost who has been with him since the death of his parents'. Anna complications are a bit 'simple, but a lot of terrible. He has just learned of tumor growth in his brain gives him only three months of life.
Enoch and Anna find themselves in a twist of fate that gives them a short course time together, but perhaps this time, they can each find something in the other to help them in their journey. Basically, this film is nothing new from the perspective of history, and when Jason Lew writer attempts to spice up something original that it feels very forced, like all the songs have a hard time find themselves.
Where history and structure of the end left me dissatisfied, restless, became a movie for two main players to showcase their talent and from this point of view function. Wasikowska has been able to choose a chain of several good films since his debut in Alice in Wonderland. The Kids Are All Right Jane Eyre, each film is showing that she is an actress with something you love the camera and the public. With restless, demonstrating once again have something special, but I never know whether certain behaviors of their character is due to brain tumor or were undecided about the role of Anna.
Hopper On the other hand - yes, is the son of the late Dennis Hopper - is the most important film a standout. He provides top-notch performance, playing a character far more complex than one might initially assume. Something in his eyes and his, James Franco, smiling man who grabs your attention. He brings the spirit and charm of his character, which makes it easy to see why Anna was so taken with someone who seems to need serious psychiatric help.
I should also mention Schuyler Fisk - another member of the "group of actors famous siblings," she is the daughter of Sissy Spacek - who gives a passionate turn as Anna's sister Elizabeth. It is not much, but it is the role of older sister pretty well.
Van Sant is also very effective for his camera work, collaborating again with a long-term chart of Harris Savides provide a series of stunning close-ups Wasikowska and Hopper together. The most impressive of the group just two chalk to draw outlines of themselves as the film draws to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, and before that, Ingmar Bergman's Persona. In this case, however, was much lighter than the two conditions.
Otherwise, it's just another "respect for the dead" and "live life fully" kind of movie. This does not inspire much in the way of conversation, and even the feeling of euphoria that you already know n ' not influence guttural they should. Many emotions are lost in the tangents the film takes, especially a scene dramatized the death of Anna and Enoch concoct something that would have played better, if you do not really think Van Sant had somehow shoehorned into one of the worst scenes moment of his career. Yes, it was not the actual death scene we had anticipated since we learned Anna was inevitably die, but m ' laid out and I was never able to get back on track.
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