Well, for a couple of months there has been a growing groundswell of support on the internets (particularly on Twitter) pushing for Sam Rockwell to receive an Oscar nomination for Moon. Yesterday, I scribbled some hasty fan-art and posted it on Twitter. The coordinator of Rockwell’s campaign spotted and liked it, and he’s posted it on the campaign blog. There’s also a few words from me about how I FUCKING LOVE MOON, and a link to my original review on this blog. I feel very self-important right now!
David
P.S. As if that wasn’t enough ego-inflation, Brick director Rian Johnson included another of my scribbles on his new tumblr.
Finally! A confirmed UK release! Probably in May. Which is ages away. And the DVD is already out in America. I’ll wait. Because I want to see it on a big screen first time.
The Brothers Bloom is the second film from writer/director Rian Johnson, the creator of Brick, my favourite film in the whole wide world. It is a con-man/heist film starring Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, Rinko Kikuchi and Robbie Coltrane.
Wait, what? Why has this only just been confirmed for a UK release, you ask? Why has a film with a bankable mainstream star like Mark Ruffalo that cost a decent amount not been pushed here? A film that stars two Oscar winners in Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz, plus another (Maximillian Schell) and a recent nominee (Rinko Kikuchi), from a critically acclaimed writer/director, whose first film made more money in the UK than it did in the US?
What the hell, Summit?! Too busy with your little vampires to spare a thought for the rest of us and find a UK distributor?
This really has me puzzled. Is this merely an issue of UK audiences, or the producers focussing on the Twilight movies, or what?
In other news, Johnson has also created a tumblr for his next film, a sci-fi/gangster flick called Looper. There’s some interesting bits and pieces about Looper floating around, not least the little quotations and images on the tumblr account. I’m excited already!
Is there any genre with as poor a track record as the high school movie? Against that legacy is set this indie debut from film-school graduate Rian Johnson. Brick is a gem of a film, ingeniously mashing two of the most American of genres as high schooler Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) turns detective to investigate the death of his former girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravin). In his investigation Brendan must navigate through a rogues gallery of drug dealers, informants, femme fatales and the school authorities.
Brick is my favourite film of all time. I expect I have seen it on more than ten occasions since I first saw it on TV in 2007, and each time I see it I love it even more. Each time I watch it I find something new to love: the local drug baron The Pin (Lukas Haas) and his fondness for Tolkien; his homicidal sidekick Tugger (Noah Fleiss) and his crew of identical wife-beater wearing thugs; and the self-obsessed quarterback, Brad Bramish, and his prize routine comeback of “Yeah?”.
There’s not much about Brick that is genuinely original as such, but the skill and confidence with which Johnson throws such disparate elements into play together equals more than the sum of its parts, and proves again and again that you just can’t beat a great script delivered by good performances. Johnson’s dynamic directorial style makes his Sundance award winning debut such a joy to watch that any attempt to define Brick solely by its genre really cannot accurately convey the tone of the picture. Fantastic.
Warwick Film Studies Society 