Robert Balkovich here! I'd like to take a moment today to wish a happy solar return to the Queen of Rom Coms, Grand Dame of '90s Action Movies Marketed Toward Women, Empress of Perfect Foils for Melissa McCarthy: the one and only Sandra Bullock. In an effort to encourage everyone to take their own personal journey and reflect on what Sandra Bullock means to them, after the jump I'm going to share some of my favorite moments that I've spent with Sandra.
Glenn here, asking if you have watched the trailer for Our Brand is Crisis? It's the new Sandra Bullock movie that was meant to be the new George Clooney movie that, somewhat infamously, came to be after the gender was flipped on the lead character. Bullock plays a political strategist who gets hired to spearhead the campaign of a contender in the 2002 Bolivian government elections and finds herself battling against both rival Billy Bob Thornton and the native language. What a predicament!
The film is based on a 2005 documentary of the same name and is directed by David Gordon Green who, let's be honest, is peculiar. His whole career is made up of peculiar choices so we'll go with it for now.
The trailer is... interesting. It certainly presents as being in the same vein as Argo, a movie that is quite largely name-checked, albeit perhaps a bit more overtly comedic in tone. It's also got more than a hint of the "nice white lady" routine that made Bullock's 2009 Oscar-winning vehicle The Blind Side such a lightning rod. It is great to see the likes of Anthony Mackie and Ann Dowd with such (apparently) prominent roles, although I would have preferred more than just a passing glance of my beloved Scoot McNairy (he's there at the one-minute mark).
Consider this another BYOYNMS (remember, we introduced that new blog acronym last week) and pipe up in the comments about what you think.
I did, however, want to make mention of what is clearly the best moment in the trailer. It comes right at the start and actually made me scream with glee. Can you pick it by watching the trailer?
Why yes, they have used an old screenshot of The Net to represent Bullock's character in the '90s as a whiz! The Net! The 1995 Irwin Winkler-directed cyberspace thriller starring Sandra Bullock that is, just quietly, one of the most pleasurable of guilty pleasures. Mozart's Ghost, man! Pi! Praetorian! Mainframes and the world wibe web! I'd recognize that shot of Bullock frantically reaching for her floppy disc as she hacks anywhere.
How deliciously ridiculous. We should all see Our Brand is Crisis just because they were inspired enough to include that in the trailer.
Katey, Joe, Nathaniel and Nick will all be in the same place at the same time (literally the first time it's ever happened!) for the Toronto International Film Festival which starts Thursday. As we pack up to head out for 10 days of constant cinephilia, we thought we'd share five picks, chosen somewhat randomly, that we're each excited about. It's free flowing festival fever and we're dropping you right into the conversation.
32 minutes Topics include but are not limited to what Charlie Kaufman's been up to, Frederick Wiseman's super ass long documentaries, Oscar positioning, Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years, Midnight Madness, Cary Fukunaga's Beasts of No Nation, Sandra Bullock in Our Brand is Crisis, how we choose and much more...
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Have you ever been to a film festival? If so how do you choose your movies?
David Poland won't review Pixels 'because... why?' VarietyOur Brand is Crisis starring Sandra Bullock gets an October 30th release date. With that film, The Walk and Freeheld all coming out it could be a huge year for features based on documentaries at the Oscars TFE in case you missed it Ann Dowd is in that film, too and loved being part of the ensemble Towleroad I interviewed the director/star of Do I Sound Gay?, a documentary on the gay voice that's out right now The Guardian reviews the latest Jason Reitman live read (The Big Lebowski) and loves on Michael Fassbender as "The Dude" and Patton Oswalt (in John Goodman's role of "Walter" and Mae Whitman (multiple parts) in particular. Not so much Jennifer Lawrence in Julianne Moore's original part
Variety interviews legendary documentarian Barbara Kopple. My shame: I've still never seen Harlan County, USA but people always say it's amazing Comics Alliance on rumors about "Robin" in Batman v Superman. He might be played by Zach Snyder's son Eli who has only worked for his dad but it's "not entirely" and only "sort of" nepotism. (Related: on the internet, words continue to lose their meanings) /Film looks at upcoming video game based movies. I don't play video games so none of this means anything to me but if you do... (I amend. There's one I'll see called Assassin's Creed but that's only because Fassy and Cotillard are both in on the heels of co-starring in Macbeth) Awards Daily loves Grandma and agrees with us that Lily Tomlin needs to be in the Best Actress conversation Gold Derby I forgot to mention that they were bought up by a larger media company so congrats to Tom O'Neill. That leaves David Poland, Jeffrey Wells, Sasha Stone and little ol' me as the last of the original indies still doing this. Not everyone wants to be bought up... I'm not sure who I'd be without The Film Experience... but on the other hand, money is nice. green. useful.
Off Cinema Esquire has a fascinating/terrifying long read on climate scientist 'what if the end of the world was your day job?' Stage Buddy for Kander & Ebb's 50th anniversary, a ranking of their top 50 songs. Wow this is comprehensive. The order is all out of whack (Cabaret and Chicago combined only get 3 songs in the top 25!) but still, good job Andrew! This reminded me how much I loved the music in The Visit and how great the music is in New York New York.
Speaking of... here's your Showtune to Go from The Scottsboro Boys (2010) which I'm so sad I never saw during its Broadway run (this song "Go Back Home" which comes fairly early in the show is so gorgeous). I only heard raves and it won 12 Tony nominations but in the season of The Book of Mormon there was no oxygen for the competition. Maybe someone will one day make it into a movie?
Today's celebrity guest blogger has been the great Ann Dowd (The Leftovers). Now it's time for her to say goodbye - Editor
-by Ann Dowd
Before I leave you, sorry to say I can't reveal what I'm doing right now. All I can say is that I'm writing to you from a set. I can't disclose any more details than that. But here are four upcoming projects that I am free to talk about.
Our Brand is Crisis This movie is based on a documentary about Pedro Gallo (played by Joaquim de Almeida) who is running for President of Bolivia for the second time. The first time he was president he moved too quickly on the economic front and the country suffered tremendously, particularly the poor. So he hires a political consulting team (it was originally Jim Carville and his team) to get him re-elected. I play one of the consultants so most of my scenes are with that team: Sandy Bullock, Anthony Mackie, Scoot McNairy and Zoe Kazan. David Gordon Green, who directed it, was extraordinary. We shot in Puerto Rico and New Orleans and it was a wonderful experience, hands down.
Viggo with screen kids in "Captain Fantastic"Captain Fantastic I play Viggo Mortensen’s mother-in-law. My daughter was dead and my grandchildren are being raised in the woods and learning to survive. Wonderfully written and directed by Matt Ross.
The Big and the Small We shot this indie in Alabama. Its about a kid who has never had a home but he’s a beautiful artist and he’s trying to find his way. I play a police officer - she’s very quirky— who is bound and determined to help him.
Oppenheimer Strategies Richard Gere is just phenomenal in this. I don’t even know how to describe it but Oppenheimer is kind of a pathological liar and it’s about the connections he makes and what he brings to fruition. It’s from Joseph Cedar (who directed the Israeli Oscar nominees Footnote and Beaufort). I have a small role but I was thrilled to be a part of it. I play a woman from the State department who is trying to clock what Oppenheimer is up to.
So much has happened since Compliance (2012). I feel so fortunate to be working this much and on such wonderful characters like Patti on The Leftovers. I am very grateful that people are interested and that I would be asked to share my experiences.
Thank you all so much for reading and I wish you all the best.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 12:21PM 
