Films seen so far this year: 346
Films seen this week: Africa United, The Horde (again), The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud, Just Wright, Winter's Bone (again), Life As We Know It, The Kids Are All Right, Confucius, Loose Cannons, True Legend, Devil
Five Random Things: Darth Vader Special
Here are five random Darth Vader-related things I've found on the internets over the last few weeks.
1. This excellent list of the 13 best Movie Mash-ups, including my all-time favourite, Brokeback to the Future. Special mention should also go to Up meets Gran Torino, Toy Story 2: Requiem and Snatch Wars, featuring a very sweary Darth Vader.
2. This very funny video of Darth Vader dancing to Can't Touch This, which I saw on @yourturnheather's excellent film blog here.
3. This set of 18 Rare and Unseen Star Wars photos. I particularly like the one of Harrison Ford pulling a funny face and the one of him practicing his blaster moves in someone's back garden.
4. Darth Vader's Twitter feed. Sample tweet: “Ruling the galaxy with an iron fist is great and all, but what I really want is to direct.”
5. This impressive and meticulous montage of 92 different scenes of people going “NOOOOOOOOO!” There's a special Star Wars sequence at the 3m48s mark.
Films I'm Dying To See: The Adjustment Bureau
The Adjustment Bureau is yet another film I wasn't aware of at all until I saw a trailer for it this week in front of a screening of The Kids Are All Right. Based on a story by Philip K. Dick, it stars Matt Damon as a senatorial candidate who falls for Emily Blunt's ballerina after a chance meeting and then encounters a group of mysterious hat-wearing types (unnamed in the imdb credits) played by Terence Stamp and the wonderful John Slattery (Roger Sterling in Mad Men), who inform him that a) his whole life is planned out and b) as a result of falling for Blunt's character he has deviated from his pre-ordained life plan and if he continues to see her, things will end badly for both of them. Will they be able to escape their Fate? Will they be saved by the power of LOVE? I'm guessing yes, but I'm still dying to see it. One thing though – isn't this basically a reworking of The Truman Show? Anyway, it all looks very stylish, Damon and Blunt seem to have some pretty decent chemistry judging from the trailer and if that wasn't enough, it also has Lost's Daniel Dae Kim and 24's Shohreh Aghdashloo in it. Colour me excited, although, sadly, it doesn't open here till March 11th.
Top 10 Films On Release This Week (as recommended by me):
Four new entries this week, with independent 'country noir' thriller Winter's Bone (my favourite film of 2010 so far and likely to stay that way), Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix's inspired mockumentary-slash-situationist prank (now confirmed as such) I'm Still Here, Nick Moran's The Kid (adapted from the best-selling misery memoir by Kevin Lewis) and British hoodie horror F all making it into the top ten. You can also still catch The Secret In Their Eyes in cinemas, while Bong Joon-ho's excellent Mother is out on DVD today. Elsewhere we've got exclusive interviews with Jennifer Lawrence and Debra Granik (star and director of Winter's Bone, respectively) here as well as interviews with Stephen Frears, Gemma Arterton, Tamsin Greig and Dominic Cooper for Tamara Drewe and interviews with various members of the Scott Pilgrim cast like Michael Cera, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman.
1. Winter's Bone
2. Toy Story 3
3. Inception
4. Scott Pilgrim vs the World
5. Tamara Drewe
6. I'm Still Here
7. The Kid
8. The Last Exorcism
9. F
10. The Illusionist
DVD Of The Week: Dogtooth (out now, RRP £15.99)
This week's DVD of the Week is Greek drama Dogtooth, which is my second favourite film of 2010 so far, after Winter's Bone. Directed by Giorgos Lanthimos, it stars Christos Stergioglou and Michelle Valley as a Greek father and mother who have kept their three teenaged children (Aggeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni and Hristos Passalis) in total isolation for their entire lives. In addition to controlling their vocabulary (e.g. making them think “telephone” is the word for salt), the father and mother convince their children that the world outside their walled-in garden is a dangerous and hostile place, where cats are vicious man-eating predators, planes are toys that fall from the sky and no-one can leave until they lose their “dogtooth”. Brilliantly directed and superbly written, this is a weirdly topical, heavily allegorical drama that is simultaneously chilling, thought-provoking and darkly funny. It's safe to say you won't have seen anything else quite like it. Highly recommended. No extras though, which is a real shame, as the director had some interesting things to say about the film when he introduced it at the London Film Festival last year and a commentary would have been invaluable. Poor show, Dogtooth DVD-producers.