Michael Fassbender and Seth Rogen as the Steves (Jobs and Wozniak) in "Steve Jobs." Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures.
BY all accounts, late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was a genius. A visionary.
By all accounts, he was also a world-class asshole.
Michael Fassbender delivers a super-turbo charged performance of this tortured, complex man in "Steve Jobs."
The film, adapted to the screen by Aaron Sorkin from the Walter Isaacson biography, runs tonight as the centerpiece selection at the 53rd New York Film Festival.
It opens nationwide on 9 Oct.
(More shortly ... For now, enjoy the trailer as well as videos from the press conference following the press and industry screening at NYFF53).
Danny Boyle (Director)
Aaron Sorkin (Screenwriter)
Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)
Kate Winslet (Joanna Hoffman)
Seth Rogen (Steve Wozniak)
Visit http://www.filmlinc.com to learn more about the 53rd New York Film Festival, including showtimes and venues.
ONE regret of Yours Truly dating to The 51st New York Film Festival is that I did not see tender, lovely and controversial “Blue is the Warmest Color” in its New York premiere.
Of course, one had opportunities, but was being a bit of a brat, whining about not wishing to see a nearly three-hour film. And not any long film, but one that made history at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in winning the Palme d’Or for both director Abdellatif Kechiche and its two lead actresses, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux.
It also contains explicit sex scenes, hinted at in its rating. And it has been banned from some theaters. (See trailer at top).
Regarding the ecstasy and agony of young lesbian love over the course of several years, “Blue” garnered universal raves. It doesn’t have any marquee names, which is in part why it is opening in only four U.S. theaters today.
“Blue” will eventually open wider but certainly nothing on the scale of the 3,000-plus theaters in which the “The Counselor” is enjoying its opening today. (“Blue” is also opening in India, Japan and Spain today, while “The Counselor” also opens in the United Kingdom).
Few moviegoers will see “Blue,” a very deserving, if disturbing, film. On the otherhand, massive numbers (at least have the opportunity to do so) will see “The Counselor.” What a pedigree, has this latter film! The director is Ridley Scott. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and octogenarian Cormac McCarthy (“No Country for Old Men.”) makes his screenwriting debut.
“The Counselor” boasts a dreamlike cast: Michael Fassbender (who seems lately to do no wrong, cinematically speaking), Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, as well as spouses Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. (See trailer below).
Set on the Texas-Mexican border, “The Counselor” commences a bit awkwardly with some sexy bedroom banter between Counselor, MF’s only moniker in the movie, with his betrothed, Laura (PC). He loves Laura to death, a good, godly and naive woman for whom he is prepared to do anything.
Indeed, Counselor’s love knows no legal bounds, leading him down a slippery slope into the underworld of cocaine – not a place for a decent man such as he. Too late, especially by the time his paths cross two lowlifes, Westray (BP) and Reiner (“No Country for Old Men alum JB.)
The film is beautifully shot. The performances are universally good; vixenish CD, for instance, further hones her facility for playing sexy with a bit of humor. What a pity then, that the film fails to make a good case for itself.
Place the blame squarely on the high-falutin’ palaver CM insists on that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Muddled, muddled is this puzzle. Too many minced words; too many soliloquies about greed not being good. A surfeit of this type of verbiage wrapped awkwardly around killings, beatings, decapitations, big cats and drug deals gone bad. And to what end?
In the final analysis, “The Counselor” – with every advantage – fails the client. That is, the moviegoing public.
"Blue is the Warmest Color" is rated NC-17 for explicit sexual content. Visit http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/blue-is-the-warmest-color to learn more about the film. "The Counselor" is Rated R for graphic violence, some grisly images, strong sexual content and language. Visit http://www.thecounselormovie.com/us/ to learn more about the film.
The double entendres fly when Brandon (Michael Fassbender) and Marianne (Nichole Beharie) order dinner in "Shame." Photo from Fox Searchlight Pictures.
STEVE McQueen and Michael Fassbender are on trend to forming the sort of director-actor collaboration shared by John Ford and John Wayne, Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant and more recently Tim Burton and Johnny Depp as well as Pedro Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz.
The duo’s first outing was 2008’s much-acclaimed and decorated “Hunger” about the 1981 Irish hunger strike lead by Irish Republican Army volunteer Bobby Sands. MF gave an electric, stunning performance as Sands. Incredibly, the film was his first major role and SMcQ’s directorial debut of a feature-length film.
Three years later, the two team up for another fine drama with a one-word title, “Shame.” It makes its U.S. debut today at the 49th New York Film Festival and is scheduled for a wider U.S. release on 2 Dec.
The shame of the title is Brandon’s (MF) sex addiction. The guy just can’t get enough. He has sex at least once a day and if he is not having it he is imagining it, masturbating between meetings in his nondescript corporate office or watching the huge supply stored on his home and office computers, as well as myriad mags stored in his kitchen cupboards.
Of course, this all sounds rather sordid and seedy. And it is. Those salivating at the thought of copious coupling in “Shame” will be disappointed, though. SMcQ wisely suggests a lot more than he shows, which is far more powerful. After all it is not a sex film, “Shame” is a film about a man’s whose sickness is addiction to sex, the more varied the better. The sex that is visible is not so graphic as to warrant an X rating. In fact, it is aloof whether shot in dreamlike sequences or with a long lense. It is appropriate considering that Brandon spends a fair amount of time fantasizing about sex and has no emotional connection to his partners or the sex he witnesses.
The lone instance when the camera hovers is during the love scene with a colleague to whom Brandon has an attraction. The night before he got rid of all of his smut, even his personal computer containing myriad bytes of it. He craves a chance at true intimacy. Determined to have normal sex with Marianne (Nicole Beharie), he spirits her from their office to a hotel room at The Standard Hotel and its breathtaking view of southern Manhattan. The camera is like a slow-moving probe, recording every move, sigh, divestiture of clothing. Is this going to be a long scene reminiscent of the one in “Hunger” between the priest and Bobby Sands? It is as uncomfortable for the viewer as it is for Brandon.
Outwardly Brandon is a handsome, well-adjusted, respectful Yuppie type – and he really is but for his shame. As Sissy (Carey Mulligan), Brandon’s equally troubled sister who may or may not be involved in an incestuous relationship with her sibling points out, “We’re not bad people, we just come from a bad place.”
It is not clear whether Sissy means Ireland where they were born or New Jersey where they grew up. Or whether it’s just their highly dysfunctional family. SMcQ doesn’t explain much. He said during a Q&A after a press screening of the film, “I wanted it to be familiar because everyone brings their own baggage to the film."
The director is British and his lead actor is German-Irish, yet “Shame” is set in New York. There is a simple explanation, “No one in London wanted to speak about it [sex addiction],” SMcQ said. In New York, the reaction was rather the opposite, making it a logical venue to shoot "Shame," which is laden with double entendres that add levity to the subject matter.
Through the prism of SMcQ’s lense, New York is a dark, dystopian, soulless place where people “live and work in the sky.” At night, they prowl like vampires in lowlit clubs and back alleys. Brandon is soulless, too, and full of longing and melancholy. He wants better but doesn’t know how to go about it. His quiet desperation is palpable and most obvious when Sissy is having sex with Brandon’s boss (James Badge Dale), only hours after meeting him. The noises coming from Brandon’s bedroom are tortuous. He seems to go through a range of emotions: rage, envy, desire, excitement, revulsion.
A scene from Kon Ichikawa’s "The Burmese Harp," which was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film. It is included in "Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses: Celebrating the Nikkatsu Centennial." Photo from 49th New York Film Festival.
It is another stellar performance by MF and it won him a best actor award at the 68th Venice Film Festival. (The actor also appears in “A Dangerous Method,” which also played Venice and debuted in New York on Wednesday, http://www.bit.ly/nInHX3).
Audiences who appreciated “Hunger” will probably embrace the psychological drama that is “Shame.” In the former film, the protagonist dies. In “Shame,” he also seems to die a sort of death. There is nothing shameful about that in the least.
Other screenings and events today at NYFF include “The Warped Ones,” “Crazed Fruit,” “Suzaki Paradise: Red Light, ” “The Burmese Group,” “Willem Dafoe at the Apple Store” and “The Kid With a Bike.”
Visit http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2011/schedule to learn more about the 49th New York Film Festival: including schedule, repeat screenings, ticket and venue information.
Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) following a moment of complete ecstasy in "A Dangerous Method." Photo from HanWay Films.
SABINA Spielrein did not come between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung; the germs of a rift were already present before she entered their sphere.
The general scuttlebutt around “A Dangerous Mind,” which makes its U.S. debut today at the 49th New York Film Festival, is quite the opposite. But as presented in the film, the men’s respective egos were the trigger. Like the works it is taken from – Christopher Hampton’s The Talking Cure play based on John Kerr’s book, “A Most Dangerous Method” – “A Dangerous Method” chronicles the birth of pyschoanalysis through the professional and personal relationship of Freud and Jung. (See trailer below).
Naturally, the film version takes a few more leaps of imagination with the personal lives of the three main characters. It is clear from the first meeting of Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Jung (Michael Fassbender) that theirs will be a high-maintenance association both personally and professionally. At dinner at Freud’s house Jung, while talking glibly about the intersection of sexual proclivity and mental instability that Freud advocates, is helping himself to a rather larger portion of the food on the dinner platter while Freud’s stunned family looks on mutely.
Freud is merely middle class, while Jung unapologetically lives high on the hog, owing to the immense wealth of the wife (Sarah Gadon) whom he does not love but is necessary for the lavish life he enjoys to the full. A brilliant man, Freud has a complex around his Jewishness, no doubt from the larger society that won’t let him forget it. On more than one occasion he makes reference to it while pointing out Jung’s Aryaness. Freud is a little envious of Jung and Jung is a little insensitive to Freud, obliviously so.
The film seems to make the point by simplying showing that no matter how brilliant, rich or celebrated we are, we never rise above our baser impulses to lie, cheat, steal and envy.
Sabina (Keira Knightley) is a patient of Jung’s whom he has been treating with the talking cure advanced by Freud before either doctor or patient meet the great man. After Sabina, now a student of pyschoanalysis, reaches out to Freud further fissures in the men’s relationship develop but not because of anything she has done.
David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” is an intelligent and beautifully shot film, set in various civilized milieux. It is also an actor’s film with copious amounts of smart, witty, arch dialogue. Indeed, the bulk of the action is in the dialogue, which engages the viewer from the first. The credit for this goes to CH, a natural choice for the screenplay since it is based on his play.
The actors, too, deserve praise for delivering CH’s line with proper credibility. Vincent Cassel almost steals the movie as the brilliant and sadistic Otto Gross, an early disciple of Freud who ultimately seduces Jung into throwing off his chain of repression.
Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Freud (Viggo and Mortensen) have a meeting of the minds before they part ways in "A Dangerous Method." Photos from HanWay Films.
KK is required to be the most physical as the hysterical Sabina, a role she handles well, though at times the bearing of teeth and jutting of the jaw threatens to be – well – hysterical. Her turn as Sabina with a passable Russian-sounding accent, though, will help her define herself beyond “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Also playing at NYFF today in is North American premiere is Abel Ferrera’s scatterbrained take on world’s end, “4:44: Last Day on Earth.” The 4:44 of the title is the exact time the world is supposed to end. The film opens on the evening before in the Lower East Side apartment shared by Cisco (Willem Dafoe) and Skye (AF’s real-life girlfriend Shanyn Leigh).
In AF's meditation on the end, the last day is no different from any other. Life is still going on as before – at least in the United States, at least in New York City. An eerie calm has settled over the town. Cisco and Skye’s apartment is equipped with the latest techological gadgets, including Skype and a flat-screen TV. On the tube the Dalai Lama is discussing various issues, including the importance of some money. Al Gore addresses the global warming that has contributed to the end that is now imminent. New York’s News 1 anchor Pat Kiernan wisely suggests that everyone should be with their loved ones as he plans to.
Cisco (Willem Dafoe) and Skye (Shanyn Leigh) during one of several close encounters in “4:44: Last Day on Earth.” Photo from 49th New York Film Festival.
It is not clear what is the message in “4:44,” or is it? Is it that we are so locked into technology that even an event as momentous as the last day can’t break our cycle? Is it about last meals - Chinese - and performing an act of kindness such as giving the Chinses food delivery guy a huge tip and allowing him to use your Skype to say goodbye to his family? Do you create several graffiti-type paintings? Visit former drug addict pals who are engaged in a pseudo intellectual conversation? What of changing clothes several times, though you don’t leave the apartment? Do you watch a classic NFL football game while plundering with your fingers the buttocks of your girlfriend who is young enough to be your granddaugther? Do you have sex several times with the aforementioned girltoy? Perhaps one's last day can be as mundane and routine as he wishes it to be.
In the end, “4:44: Last Day on Earth” is a muddle spiked with gratuitous sex and an incongruous freak-out moment that do not assist the general comprehension.
Other screenings today at NYFF include ”Dreileben, Pt. 2,” “Invasion,” “Earth” and “Le Havre.”
Visit http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2011/schedule to learn more about the 49th New York Film Festival: including schedule, repeat screenings, ticket and venue information.
Michael Fassbender and Seth Rogen as the Steves (Jobs and Wozniak) in "Steve Jobs." Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures.
By all accounts, he was also a world-class asshole.
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