Drop Everything Trailer for 'The Monuments Men'

Wow. My life is worth living again.

Is This Getting Tedious? No. Right? Can't. Right?

Well, the next footage from Alfonso Cuarón's 'Gravity' is here and it's...more of the same nail-biting suspense. Again.

The whole movie is like this? 1) How can they maintain this level of juice? and 2) Just how much O2 do those suits have?

They got to get inside somewhere or the movie ends. Yes? So, looks like, by chance, they've landed on (literally) a space station, I guess it's The Space Station, ISS.

What are the odds, though, of hitting this object without being able to guide yourself? Perhaps, that's why Clooney's 'can is empty'. He used up his jet pack to point himself and Bullock at the ISS. Got it.

Fine. That's fine. The footage is stunning but there's stretches of logic and happy coincidences throughout the movie that enable these two astronauts to survive point to point. I don't care.

This might be a good time to stop watching these clips, though. Looks like we're going to get the entire movie 2 minutes at a time. (Okay, I don't care about that either. These clips/trailers have given my life meaning).



















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Wow. Trailer for 'Gravity'

I'll start the popcorn. So good. So damn good.





















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Poster for 'Gravity'

Kind of cartoony but, still, I like it. I like everything about this movie. Director/writer, actors -- apparently Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are the only people in the movie. There are voices heard on radios but that's it. And, yes, I like that. That is cool.

I like the title. Simple, yet with a certain weight or...gravity.

I like the tag: Don't let go. Nice. Simple, understated yet with a certain...gravity.

Yeah. I like this.

We got a few seconds of footage today so there should be a trailer very soon.

I like that.

'Gravity' is so good that, even if it sucks, it will be very good.

How often does that happen? I like that that's the case.






















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Portraits of Catherine Zeta-Jones and George Clooney by Maurizio Galimberti

Found via Fstoppers.

Much more, of course, at Galimberti's site.

Here's how it's done.





















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And Another Poster for 'The Ides of March'

Isn't that just a bit freaky? The way their faces are mashed together like that? But, they blend really well together so it's cool too, and that's a good thing.

We got an internet banner/poster earlier if you want to see that. Same thing basically, but you might like it -- it has this funny kind of 3D or weird visual effect going on cause the two sides are out of focus and what's in the middle is in sharp focus which gives it depth, or something.

This one, though. One of the best posters I've seen in a long time. Nice. Don't know plot details but I'm sure there's some sort of thematic element represented in this poster. Like, the young guy, Gosling, is telling the presidential candidate, Clooney, what to say and what to do, so the public likes Clooney but only cause of what Gosling says and does. Something like that.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking this story is about. One of those movies where the characters are playing each other to get what they want. But, it's not that simple.

First, the Inciting Incident: Character A (Clooney) sets up Character B (Gosling) to get something.

Then: (First Act turning point) A gets what he wants at B's expense. B looks like a chump. A gloats.

B spends the first half of Act II looking bad and sulking around the place.

But then: (Second Act midpoint) B also gets what he wanted all along even though it appeared he was being played for a sucker. Turns out B was the one playing A the whole time and let A think he had won when actually he was being set up by B. A ends up looking stupid and we figure it's all over. B wins, A loses.

However: A wanted B to get what he wanted so that A could achieve his hidden agenda which was something he could only get after B got what he wanted. Now, because A got what he really wanted, B looks stupid (again). Really stupid. A tells B something like, "Look kid. This game isn't about winning, it's about finding out who you really are. And, you're not a winner. I am. That's why I beat you. And that's why you look like a schmuck. Because, that's what you really are. A schmuck. I'm a winner, you're a schmuck. That's what this has been. That's what we've been doing. I've been winning, you've been a schmuck." You know? One of those speeches that comes off really evil but is so clever and smoothly delivered you kind of like the guy that delivers it even though he's being a complete tool. (I can just see George Clooney delivering a speech like that. You know. Like in 'Out of Sight' when he was a crook, a bank robber, but he was so smooth when talking to the bank teller, telling her what to do, what kind of bills to put in the bag, and to stay calm and everything was going to be alright, and how he said 'no dye packs' but it wasn't like a rude demand but more like a polite request, and he didn't even use a gun but was so cool and intelligent and had that buttery voice and those eyes that the teller was captivated by that she practically wanted to give him the money, and they were flirting while he was robbing her and he even asked that she smiled and try to look friendly and she smiled but it wasn't forced but natural because she was so charmed she couldn't help it, and you kind of liked him and rooted for him even though he was robbing a bank). One of those speeches.

So now, even though the speech was really smooth, we hate A for what he did to B and we want him (A) to burn.

But: (Third Act twist/reversal) B knew all this all along and allowed A to think he was playing B for a fool (again), except it was B that was playing A for a fool so that B could achieve his hidden agenda which was only possible if A thought he had accomplished his hidden agenda. So now, B looks great and A looks like a clod.

Thing is, though, A looks so bad now we sympathize with him and hate B. Well, we kind of hate both A and B, but mostly B, at this point.

And, you know, the tag on the cover of Time: Is this man our next president? plays into all that. This man? There's two men. So, just who are we voting for? The front man or the guy with all the brains who's pulling the strings, making things happen? And just who is pulling the strings, making things happen? A or B? That's the point. We can't tell. Hell, things are so complicated they don't even know. We don't know, they don't know. It's all sort of a cosmic 'Things happen the way they're supposed to happen no matter how conniving or smart you think you are' thing. And that's the thematic stuff represented in the poster with the two faces jammed together so it's hard to tell where one man's identity stops and the other's begins. Like they've spent so much time and energy fooling everybody you can't tell who's who anymore. And the lesson of all this is: don't scheme so much you forget who you are and make your life so miserable you can't tell yourself from your worst enemy. Or, something like that.

So, that's what the movie is about. But, wait!

Theeeen: (big reveal at the end of Act III) Turns out character C (most likely female -- some cutey-pie [there's a couple in the movie -- Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, maybe a couple more] that nobody figured had a horse in this race cause she's just too cute to be smart enough to compete with the big smart men) winds up being the one that was playing both A and B to get what she wanted all along.

Now both A and B look terrible, which is good cause we hate both of them and C looks great which is okay with us cause she's really pretty and was such an underdog that nobody even took her seriously -- which makes everyone in the audience feel wonderful, and everyone wakes up the next morning with a 'fuck you get out of my way cause I'm a winner and you're a schmuck' attitude which is how movies are supposed to make us feel and we all go out and make the world a better place which is what movies are supposed to make us want to do so it all works out for the best.

The End.

Okay, I don't know the play Farragut North by Beau Willimon, which the movie is based on, or the political maneuvering that the play is based on. I'm not that kind of guy. I just know this movie, based on the imagery in the poster, must play out along the lines described above. I like to do that -- I like to try and guess what stuff is about from just a couple clues or a small amount of data, like what's in a poster or trailer. That's the kind of guy I am.

Anyway...nice poster. Don't know why there's so much negative space on the left side, though. That's kinda weird. But, I like it anyway.

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George Clooney and Ryan Gosling on 'The Ides of March' Poster

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All it Takes is a Good Director

Alexander Payne could direct the phone book and sell tickets. 'The Descendants'. Great trailer. Payne crafts every interaction.

Poster for 'The Descendants'

Like the clip that rolled out a couple weeks ago, poster is disarming and has a flow, a natural feel. Really, this composition should fail but somebody treated it just so -- it works.

Subtext is there -- middle-aged man wearing wedding ring looking at two young girls on the beach, smile on his face. Story should have some weight, good character arc.

With Alexander Payne at the helm expect a subdued but persistent sense of pace. He has a way with quiet character-driven material. Loved the way he handled the fragile narrative in 'Sideways'. His stamp, as producer, is unmistakable in 'King of California'.

George Clooney looks to be maintaining career inertia effortlessly.

Clip from 'The Descendants'

Jerry Weintraub Doc 'His Way'

'The American' Featurette

Featurette for 'The American' starring George Clooney. With a few of Anton Corbijn's photos for the companion book.

George Clooney And Charlie Rose

The Good German

So. That's what a fedora looks like.

Anne Thompson screened "The Good German" in her class at UCLA. Here are some of her impressions:

As Attanasio labored over the script for five years, Soderbergh threw things at him: like, make the female lead a prostitute, and, try telling the movie from multiple points-of-view. Tobey Maguire, who had turned down everything in sight until he read this script, was eager to play a foul-mouthed lout of a soldier who slaps around his hooker girlfriend. Early on, The Good German shocks us with a sex scene between Maguire and Blanchett that signals: hold on, this is not your ordinary movie.

And Clooney, while he's as handsome as ever, continues to resist playing a conventionally active hero. His lovelorn journalist keeps getting beat up and doesn't know what's going on. The actors had to figure out how to perform in a 40s pre-Method declarative style while fighting their instincts on how to be natural and believable, Attanasio said. Soderbergh is challenging audiences to question their expectations. Will they get a white knight hero who saves the day? A fallen woman who finds redemption? A little romance? Check it out.

Complete story