'Intruders'

I know I'll like 'Intruders'. It looks well done and seems to offer a viewer who isn't looking for slash and gore something to think about that's atmospheric and creepy. My kind of movie.

'Intruders' is directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo ('Intacto', which got good reviews, and '28 Weeks Later'). These are pretty solid flicks that show a lot of confidence -- rare these days with all the furniture movers pointing and shooting.

This from Manohla Dargis' write-up:

• It’s a pleasure to find that Mr. Fresnadillo has assumed the mantle of horror classicist to make “Intruders,” using shadows and directorial sleights of hand to coax forth its slow-building scares rather than just pouring on the usual guts and gore. 

 and

• For “Intruders” Mr. Fresnadillo has slowed the pace, dimmed the lights and trained his camera on the faces of characters you may actually want to see make it out alive and in one piece, unlike the disposable young things of many contemporary horror flicks whose idiocy and one-dimensionality almost beg for your sadism.

The movie took about $41k in its limited US release in 33 theaters for a per-screen-average of $1,235. Kind of low -- that looks be it. 'Intruders' will cut back to 11 theaters this weekend.

Still, I'm intrigued by the story and the poster. Why are Owen's eyes and mouth missing? What does that say about his character? If these plot elements deliver 'Intruders' could be a substantial experience. However, it occurs to me that (perhaps) these are the very story devices that have made the movie so difficult to sell. Trailers measure out with an odd beat -- not quite weird or off-putting, but with conceptual psych threads that are both difficult to make clear with a few seconds of footage and have to be kept...well...secret. People would sense this isn't a typical horror flick, and may have decided to skip it for that reason. While that may have been a tad unfortunate, 'Intruders' could do a lot of business on cable/TV and as a rental due to good word of mouth. I'll be buying a copy.

Here's an interview with Fresnadillo which includes new footage.



Clive Owen has a couple interesting projects coming up. 'Hemingway & Gellhorn' with Nicole Kidman arrives on HBO in May (trailer). This is directed by Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness of Being) which by itself qualifies the movie as must-see.

Owen has an intriguing project in 'Recall'. The logline is pretty vague: 'An NSA agent attempts to recall the events that led up to a failed hostage rescue', but also has a lot of potential. Directed by Harold Becker (Sea of Love, Mercury Rising). The news here, though, is the script is by Paul Schrader who penned 'Taxi Driver' and wrote and directed 'Affliction'. That's got to be a good sign.
















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NYT Anatomy of a Scene: 'The Woman in Black'

I'm liking this movie more and more. It's got exactly the right pace and tone. Not a fan of the editing, though. Seems a bit clipped, there's not a lot of throughline visually. That's especially true in this sequence. Nonetheless, I'm there. Getting good reviews, looks like fun.



Manohla Dargis' write-up just went up. Here's a bit:

Something wicked does come, of course, slowly and at times with unsettling effectiveness.

and

Schooled in the art of the quiet boo, Mr. Watkins fills the film with squeaking doors and floorboards, pools of black, long silences and an assortment of moldering toys. Less gore is more here, and what a relief.

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New York Film Festival

Here's a surprisingly good quickie rundown by Manohla Dargis.

Brave One Profile And Review

Manohla Dargis has a nice rundown of Jodie Foster's work, and a clip with slide show and audio review of 'The Brave One'.

Closer Look

Manohla Dargis and AO Scott take a look at the Harry Potter movies, including how the child actors have matured, the changes in CGI and nature of the stories, and the cool cool British thesps that populate the series. (4 videos, each about 3 minutes)

Anatomy Of A Scene

Angelina Jolie in 'A Mighty Heart', reviewed by Manohla Dargis. A very different sort of movie with a verite, you are there, feel that's hard to get used to because of Jolie's pure glam Hollywood track record. Check out the Anatomy of a Scene (video) with director Michael Winterbottom. The scene selected plays with both the awkwardness of examining the minute details of the crime and the crackling tension of a wife dealing with her husband's kidnapping.

Direct Access

NYT has coverage of the online movie industry. A.O. Scott looks at the democratizing effect of internet movie content and the possibility of first run movies being made available online.

Manohla Dargis tells about her try at downloading movies at jaman.com. She had quite a few troubles.

I went over to jaman. There's a lot of potential in this approach but the tech side is not up to speed yet. I watched a few minutes of a Kung Fu movie -- the picture was very small and had modest resolution, but the idea of being able to download a movie is still pretty appealing.

The technical difficulties associated with downloading huge files (a 90-minute feature downloaded from jaman.com is about 1.3GB) will be lessened when the quad-core chip becomes available at consumer prices. Add the solid-state drive (SSD. Should be available before the end of the year) and downloads become far easier, with no crashes or freezes.

The last element needed to make movie downloads a mainstream choice is internet connection speed. Right now the max transfer rate is about 1.5 megs/second. (I know your cable company advertises speeds up to 6 megs but that's not a reality. Usually the transfer rate hovers around 400 kb/sec -- that's less than 1/10th the 6 meg/sec rate). At 1.5 mb/sec a movie would take about 1000 seconds to download -- that's pushing 20 minutes (under perfect conditions with no freezes and a hypothetical max transfer rate). At a more realistic transfer rate a movie would take up to 10 times 20 minutes to download -- not very palatable.

There are two possible fixes: Nationwide installation of high-speed optical cable, or, establishing high-speed satellite feeds. Unfortunately, neither of these is on the horizon, but the satellite option seems most realistic to me and 2 mb/sec transfer rate is currently in place.

For aspiring filmmakers the news couldn't be better. In a few years all you'll need to make a movie is a digital camera and a site that will accept your upload and, baddabing, you've got your first feature produced and distributed. The two major differences: You won't need to buy thousands of feet of film (or worry about the costs of processing, and editing), and you won't need a distribution deal to get your movie into theaters.

The online movie download industry may be in its infancy but I think it represents the way people will get their movies in the not-too-distant future. I mean, it wasn't that long ago we listened to music on AM radio and 8-track tapes, and watched movies only at the theater or on TV (until the advent of the VHS tape, that is). Stay tuned...

Praise For Cooper In Breach

"Breach", the story of traitor Robert Hanssen, which stars Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillipe; directed by Billy Ray and written by Ray, Adam Mazer, and William Rotko, is getting some very fine ink -- all of which praise Cooper's performance.

Here is Manohla Dargis' take, Kenneth Turan's and David Edelstein's reviews, and my favorite of the bunch, Steve Inskeep's interview with Cooper. (8 min.)

I especially like the way Cooper keeps Inskeep (one of NPR's senior reporters and a veteran interviewer) just a bit off balance. It would seem Cooper has very much internalized some tinker/tailor pyschological orientation.