Tribeca: Bits and Pieces

Glenn wrapping up his Tribeca film coverage with five films including Elisabeth Moss, Roman Polanski, Emory Cohen, Melonie Diaz, and the memory of a fashion icon.

The One I Love

Catching up with this high-concept romance after having missed it at Sundance was a good idea. Taking a Twilight Zone-ish twist to the relationship dramedy we see so often at festivals and on the indie scene, Charlie McDowell’s feature debut is a visually playful metaphysical look at marriage and the memory of love that is ultimately rewarding and inventive. Elisabeth Moss continues to be on top form following Mad Men, Top of the Lake, and Listen Up Philip with her role here, while Mumblecore graduate Mark Duplass gives fine if less attention-grabbing work as her somewhat dull husband.

The story is too complex to get into here (and yet easy to follow so don’t worry about this just being a winsome Upstream Color), and it’s probably best audiences go in as blind as possible to the twists that it takes with the story of a crumbling marriage and the retreat they take to the country where, apparently, everybody comes back refreshed and more in love than ever. Filmed in warm, picturesque yellow tones and with refined, yet deliberately essential production design, The One I Love is a winner that will likely be wonderful to revisit. B+

Venus in Fur, Under the Harvest Sky, Dior and I and X/Y after the jump.

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I Vant To Link Your Blog

Empire Parker Posey (who has been teaching an awesome course in Emmy acceptance speeches ---teehee) joins the cast of Grace of Monaco as Nicole Kidman's frenemy lady-in-waiting
Monkey See shares notes on Quartet's gala premiere at TIFF
Stale Popcorn discovers The Perfect American Psycho Billboard
CHUD I didn't know this: Director Rian Johnson's (Brick, Looper) brother Nathan paints posters for each of his movies 

TMZ crew member on The Lone Ranger dies 
Wax Word the new Keanu Reeves action epic 47 Ronin is having a nightmarishly expensive post-production phase
Hollywood.com Helen Mirren to reprise her Oscar winning role as The Queen on the stage in a new play
Advocate Scarlett Johansson will scratch at limp Benjamin Walker in Broadway's millionth revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Ciarin Hinds, so ubiquitous right now, will play Big Daddy. Oh the mendacity of it all!
Movie|Line those hoping for a quick stage-to-film transfer of Nina Arianda's star-making Broadway outing in Venus in Fur might be disappointed to learn that the film adaptation is indeed underway... but in French directed by Roman Polanski and starring his wife Emmanuelle Segnier.  

Finally... the trailer for Amy Heckerling's Vamps starring her Clueless muse Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter has arrived.

Distribution is getting so confusing as of late. Get this: Vamps hits various on demand digital thingies on October 19th, theaters on November 12th and DVD/Bluray the next day on November 13th. What-the-whanow? That's more confusing than seeing Dan Stevens all shirtless and not in the arms of Lady Mary... which is plenty confusing enough!

Linker Come Back to Me

My New Plaid Pants pic of the day, first image from the set of Steven Soderbergh's Liberace bio Behind the Candelabra with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon as lovers
Movie City News 29 Weeks To Go until Oscar! Wooo
Cinema Blend apparently they're going to reboot The Brady Bunch. 
i09 pretends that 10 upcoming remakes / reboots aren't going to suck. Hey, someone has to stay positive.

Hollywood Elsewhere Dark Right(Wing) Rises... People can't stop talking about the politics of Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy.
Hollywood.com interviewed me and other pundits on The Dark Knight Rises Oscar hopes
Awards Daily breaks down the Tony nominees who made it to Oscar nominations 
Pajiba would like you to think about all the brunettes in Chris Nolan films. It's always brunettes.
/Film manages to dig up a tiny bit of info about the Coen Bros Inside Llewyn Davis 
Awards Daily breaks down the Tony nominees who made it to Oscar nominations

Obits
is it just me or are people dropping like flies... I'm a bit freaked out :( 
Studio Briefing Mr Cyd Charisse, singer/actor Tony Martin (1913-2012), has died 
The Guardian pays final respects to Chris Marker (1921-2012), the experimental filmmaker of La Jetée fame (which inspired 12 Monkeys)
New York Times the ever fascinating Gore Vidal (1925-2012) 
Fresh Air remembers Lupe Ontiveros (1942-2012) of As Good As it Gets and Selena fame. I loved it when NBR handed her Best Supporting Actress for Chuck and Buck (2000). Remember that? That's my favorite Lupe turn.

Finally, in much happier news...
Have you heard that Nina Arianda (Midnight in Paris, Win Win) is signing projects left and right. Looks like that Tony Award for "Venus in Fur" really did it. Nina, who has previously really had bit roles in movies, has surely arrived.

She recently signed on to play the great Guilieta Masina in Fellini Black and White the story of two missing days in the life of Oscar magnet Federico Fellini right before the Oscars in 58. Are they making this movie just for us? Seriously! She's also set to play Janis Joplin in another upcoming bio with Martha Marcy May Marlene's Sean Durkin helming after approximately a million years of rumors of this actress and that actress and sometimes more than one at once, playing her in a biopic. Hollywood apparently just can't let  The Rose (1979) be the last word. Tina Fey and Jane Krakowski even sent up the development hell of Janis Joplin biopics in an arc of 30 Rock. Nina also joins a huge cast of recognizable actors in the fascinating sounding The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby which is reportedly a two-part film told from the husband (James McAvoy) and wife's (Jessica Chastain) perspectives.

This is all a long way of saying learn Nina's name and expect her on an Oscar shortlist in 5...4...3...2....1

Burning Questions: Broadway's Cinematic Potential?

Michael C. here in the aftermath of the Tony's to return the focus to where it belongs: Movies.

The film version of Porgy & Bess (1959) is rarely seen. Audra McDonald & Norm Lewis in the Broadway show, with movie star looks and thrilling voices, suggest its cinematic potential

As I've written before in this column, as a rule I don't go in for the sort of rose-colored nostalgia that assumes pop culture is on some kind of inexorable decline into the sewer and if only we could return the Golden Age of the 30's or the 70's or whenever then we would experience some kind of artistic renaissance. It is now as it ever was - a little quality, lots of junk.

But one trend I do resist, one that I mark as the undeniable decay of the natural order of things, is the movement toward reverse-engineering successful movies into Broadway shows and away from the reverse. I will fight this trend to my dying breath, or at least I will stand outside the stage production of Ghost and shake my old man cane at it like Carl from Up. 

Yet there is hope. With Les Miserables finally landing in theaters this December, and August: Osage County getting the Streep treatment as we speak, maybe there is still a chance to return to the glory days of stage to screen transfers the way that Thespis intended. But with only so many big Broadway titles left unfilmed that brings me to this week's Burning Question: Are there any current Broadway shows that deserve the big screen treatment? 

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