Chronicle is the latest film employing the ‘found-footage’ style of filmmaking. 3 high school kids in Seattle encounter this giant supernatural ball, that’s really the only way to say it, and walk away with super powers. This is Fox’s desperate move to encourage the teen mob to put down their Playstation controller and head on over to the cinema.  If you are prone to headaches or nausea, I would encourage you stay away from this film.  For those who enjoyed Cloverfield, this film is definitely for you. If you took Hancock and Cloverfield and sandwiched them together you’d get CHRONICLE.

The film is written and directed by first time filmmaker, Josh Trank, and stars the relatively unknown trio of Dane DeHaan, Alex Russel, and Michael B. Jordan. No relation to Michael J. Jordan, also known as the greatest basketball player of who ever lived.  Thus far, it look likes Fox’s aggressive marketing stunt in New York is paying off as the film did very well at the Friday night box office with an estimated $8.65 million.  Carry that through Sunday, adjusting for a major Sunday drop due to the Superbowl, and Fox should be looking at something around $21 million. Not bad for a movie expected to be in the high single digits. But let’s actually talk about the movie.

For me, there was something missing from this film. Dane DeHann’s Andrew, the film’s main character and eventual antagonist, was more annoying than evil/interesting. His character very much played the nobody-likes-me card despite his much more popular cuz, Alex Russel’s Matt, continuing to coddle his self-esteem.  Fuming with anger over his mom’s terminal illness and his abusive father, Andrew gets increasingly more dark while maintaining his non-likeness.  A lead character getting more annoying does not bode well for a film. But I know, and you know, that you go to this film for it’s special effects and in that department the film does not disappoint.

About 40 minutes into this short 83 minute film, the three horny teenagers start experimenting with their powers.  From flying scenes to outright duels in downtown Seattle, the effects are pretty darn cool. One scene in particular, a first-person view of Matt and his main squeeze getting launched at the Space Needle and falling off it, makes you feel like you’re on Universal Studio’s Back to the Future ride.  Another scene, at the school talent show, has Andrew exploiting his powers to essentially be the world’s most impressive magician.  That scene, I have to say, was pretty awesome. Sexually frustrated 16 year-old boys fantasizing over the ability to fight back, get laid, and get revenge on high school bully’s could get the Facebooking world of high school America loving this movie.

It was mostly the slowness of the first half of the movie, the simply not-likable Andrew, and the overall style of the film that did not do it for me. Not to mention, the characters, except for Steve, were very difficult to connect with.  If Matt said the name “Andrew” one more time I might have lost it.  For most of the movie I was asking myself where it was going, and it was not until maybe the final 20 minutes did things start to heat up.  The concept was fresh, but delivery could really use more work.  I get that it was a ‘found-footage’ style movie that Blair Witch put on the radar, but too much shakiness just doesn’t work.

Overall, CHRONICLE left me with “you know what I didn’t like about that movie” instead of “wow, those special effects were great.”

RENT IT

One of the biggest online events was a one in which Yahoo! teamed up with the creative heads at Sundance and streamed 9 short films which were in competition at Sundance. The idea behind this was to let fans actively participate in the Sundance Film Festival. I mean isn’t that what Sundance is all about? And participate they did!

In addition to viewing the nine movies, fans were also able to vote for their favorite, which led to Sundance’s first ever online “Audience Award.” Whichever film won this Audience Award also got to take home $5,000.

During this online competition, Yahoo! provided over 1.6 million views of the nine short films. 1.6 million! That’s a lot of people watching.

Well, not to spoil the surprise, but out of the nine films in competition, Tom Clark, Maria White, Kristy Olson Cuthbert, and Brad Jayne’s film Debutante Hunters took home best-like award (and not to mention the money).

Pretty cool, right? And what’s even cooler is that Yahoo! is continuing to screen these nine short films for six more weeks. So if you missed them during the actual Sundance Festival, do not fret, just click here.

For more information as well as the complete list of the nine short films, check out the official press release below:

YAHOO! TO OFFER EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF

2012 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL,

INCLUDING SELECT SHORT FILMS STREAMING FREE ONLINE

First-Ever Online “Audience Award” Enables Fans to Vote
for Best Short Film on Yahoo! Screen
Yahoo! Movies & omg! NOW Feature Behind-The-Scenes
Content Straight from Park City
SUNNYVALE, CA (January 19, 2012)— Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, is opening the doors to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, giving independent film fans access to one of the year’s most highly anticipated industry events. The general public will have access to 9 short films from this year’s Festival by visiting sundance.yahoo.com, powered by Yahoo! Screen, Yahoo’s video destination and home to the most comprehensive collection of premium video content. Additionally, for the first time ever, they will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite of those nine short films. Fans will also get behind-the-scenes access to film and entertainment news, celebrities in attendance and the biggest stories of the festival through Yahoo! Movies (http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/sundance ), one of the top destinations online for movie fans with more than 26 million users per month, and omg! (http://omg.yahoo.com), the #1 most-visited celebrity news site on the Internet.

Beginning today and lasting through January 27, Yahoo! Screen will host a selection of short films premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and chosen in close collaboration with the Festival and Yahoo! Movie editors. Film aficionados will have the chance to vote for their favorite, and on Saturday, January 28th– at the Festival’s Official Awards Ceremony – Yahoo! will present the winning filmmaker with the inaugural Yahoo! Audience Award and five thousand dollars. Plus, the winning film will be given prominent placement on Yahoo!. All of the additional featured films will remain accessible on Yahoo! Screen for six additional weeks.

Throughout this celebration of independent cinema, Yahoo! Movies is providing exclusive film-related content and original news daily from their on-the-ground correspondents in Park City. omg! NOW (http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/now/) host Kristen Aldridge will take her audience past the velvet ropes, providing insider access from Main Street to the hottest parties and biggest premieres. A daily video series, omg! NOW is the web’s #1 online show for celebrity and entertainment news.

“Yahoo! is the home for major entertainment events online and this year, we’re bringing film buffs with us to one of the world’s most significant film festivals,” said Mickie Rosen, senior vice president of Yahoo! Media Network. “We look forward to providing film lovers a role in Festival voting with our new Audience Award and keeping them connected with minute-by-minute reporting. Some of the best filmmakers started their careers developing short films and now our audience has the chance to pick what could be the next big name in the film industry.”
Short films available now on Yahoo! Screen include:

· ’92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card
Jim and Dave, two brothers who don’t like each other very much, are forced to come together when their dad dies in Kansas City. Dave is pretty sure he has an Alonzo Mourning Skybox Series rookie card, but Jim has other ideas.

· Aquadettes
A meditation on life, death, and synchronized swimming.

· The Arm
To keep up with social pressure in a technologically advanced world, Chance starts a texting relationship with Genevieve—a girl he meets at a yogurt shop. But tragedy forces Chance to realize that he was never in a relationship at all.

· Debutante Hunters
In the low country of South Carolina, some true southern belles reveal their more rugged side, providing a glimpse into what drives them to hunt in the wild.

· Dol (First Birthday)
A gay Korean American man yearns for a family life that is just out of reach.

· Henley
Meet nine-year-old Ted Henley, budding motel manager and roadkill entrepreneur.

· Long Distance Information
Father always told us, “Never talk to strangers,” . . . But surely we have to phone home sometimes?

· Odysseus’ Gambit
During his lifetime, each man plays cosmic chess against the devil.

· Una Hora por Favora
A woman hires a day laborer for an hour and gets more than she bargained for.

Yahoo! is the Official Sponsor of the Short Film Program at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, which runs January 19-29, 2012 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

And in this vain it seems, comes Game Change, the new HBO movie based on John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s best-selling novel of the same name, which tracks the 2008 U.S. presidential election on both sides, especially focusing on John McCain’s decision to run with ex-Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee. Directed by Jay Roach and transformed for the screen by screenwriter Danny Strong, Game Change is the second venture this duo has embarked on–the first being the excellent television film Recount, which also happened to be an HBO film.

And what makes this movie such a rare and original hybrid? Well, along with boasting a stellar supporting cast– Ed Harris as John McCain, Woody Harrelson as McCain’s senior advisor, Steve Schmidt, Ron Livingston as Mark Wallace, and Sarah Paulson as Nicolle Wallace– it also has the one thing that serves as the, er, game changer, taking what could have been a run-of-the-mill television movie to the HBO level everyone knows and love. And that one game-changing thing is Julianne Moore who is playing Sarah Palin. This is groundbreaking, let me tell you!

And what’s even better about this news is that just by judging by the recently-released trailer, Julianne Moore doesn’t merely do an impeccable Sarah Palin impersonation, but she also gives her a level of complexity not even seen in Palin herself. This is going to be good. So very good.

Game Change will premiere on HBO on March 10th. Watch the trailer below (and feel free to watch it again and again):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Apparently, McCarthy will be bringing this same approach to his first ever script, The Counselor, which is set in the present-day Southwest and will center around a lawyer who gets involved in the Mexican drug trade and must suffer the consequences. Sounds amazing, especially considering McCarthy’s somewhat accurately eerie detailing of the Mexican drug war.

But what makes this even more amazing (as if that could actually happen)? Well, apparently the film will also have two female leads as well. This is great news, just great. As many McCarthy novels that I have read, the closet I’ve ever gotten to a female lead was a Mexican prostitute turned love-story catalyst in his Cities of the Plain. Here’s hoping (or rather knowing) that McCarthy brought his same knack for writing multi-dimensional male characters to that of their female counterpart.

So, just two short weeks after selling this sure-to-be-excellent script, Deadline is reporting that The Counselor has secured a director, a very big director. How big? Ridley Scott big. That’s right, the man behind Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator has signed on to direct McCarthy’s venture. This is truly exciting news! Just the best. This has Oscar-gold written all over it. Could it really be Christmas in February?! Because it certainly feels that way!

The three figures in the sky were supposed to look like Andrew, Matt, and Steve the stars of the upcoming film Chronicle. But what are they doing in the sky?

Chronicle tells the story of three friends who discover a strange crater in the middle of some spooky area a la Superman. But these kids are punks. Using their powers to scare little girls and mess around with locals…until one takes it too far. Apparently the dark horse, one of the boys has evil running through his veins. Classic superpower story.

Here is the video of the “people” flying around NYC.
Here is the trailer for Chronicle, out February 3rd.\

Last month, I wrote an article about Fox News attacking The Muppets for discriminating against oil companies and big business. Yes, it was ridiculous and a sad attack at puppets.

Now, well over a month later, the Muppets have ended their legendary silence. Kermit and Miss Piggy have responded. Check out the video.

Good stuff indeed. And, oddly enough, true to character. Kermit tries to be the level-headed one, discussing, humorously nonetheless, how it was a ridiculous claim. About them wasting essentially wasting gas using the Rolls-Royce in the film. Good form, Kermit. What a classy guy.

Miss Piggy on the other hand attacks Fox News. “It’s almost as laughable as accusing fox news of being, uh, news,” she claims, which was met with both laughs and claps. Then she goes on the say that if they’re taking her seriously there’s a real issue there.

Regardless of yours, mine or their opinions of the television network, there was no reason to bring the lovable Muppets—who made a great movie by the way—into their political discussion.

Maybe now I’m looking a little too deeply into this…

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture:
“Bridesmaids”
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“The Help”
“Midnight in Paris”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role:
George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Demian Bicher, “A Better Life”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “J. Edgar”
Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”
Brad Pitt, “Moneyball”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role:
Michelle Williams, “My Week with Marilyn”
Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis, “The Help”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”
Tilda Swinton, “We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role:
Nick Nolte, “Warrior”
Kenneth Branagh, “My Week with Marilyn”
Armie Hammer, “J. Edgar”
Jonah Hill, “Moneyball”
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role:
Octavia Spencer, “The Help”
Berenice Bejo, “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain, “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”

For a full list of winners, including winners from the television categories, click here.

Apparently I was not the only person to feel this way, as the theater was jammed pack for an early Tuesday evening. This made for a more valid (for the sake of reviewing) movie-watching experience as I was able to gauge the reactions of my fellow viewers in addition to my own.

Well, did Lynne Ramsay’s film-adaption of Lionel Shriver’s 2003 novel of the same name live up to my all my anticipation and hope? You bet it did!

Rather expectedly, probably the best part of We Need to Talk About Kevin took the form of Tilda Swinton’s fantastic performance. Swinton took a role, one that could have been so easily made trite or one-dimensional, and brought so much life and realism to it, that at times it was easy to get lost in her performance. John C. Reilly as well as Ezra Miller, who played teenage Kevin, should also not be overlooked as they both gave very strong performances.

Stylistically, the film boasted beautiful shots as well as a top-rate soundtrack–by far the best movie soundtrack of this year– which featured songs by The Beach Boys, Wham!, and Buddy Holly. The dialogue and effective use of flashbacks, which took place throughout the entire movie, were also note-worthy.

My only complaint lies in the characterization of Kevin. At times the character-development felt a little flat and any sort of ending revelation he had, however small, felt forced and out of character. That aside, We Need to Talk About Kevin, is a great example of mastery when it comes to good filmmaking. Well, done Ramsay! While I will forever lament the film’s lack of Oscar recognition, I remain strong in my beliefs that this was one of the better movies of this year.

SEE IT.

Some of the nominations were deserved for sure. I, as I’m sure many others, would have been incensed if Rooney Mara did not receive a nomination for her downright outstanding performance in Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I would have also felt similarly if Terrence Malick as well as his film, Tree of Life, were not recognized for the Best Director and Best Picture categories, respectively, the way they were during this year’s Golden Globes. I was also pleasantly surprised by the Academy’s decision to nominate Mellisa McCarthy for her supporting role in Bridesmaids, not that this was my favorite movie this year (not by far) but it does not go unnoticed that they are breaking ground by nominating a television actress for her role in a comedic film, especially an actress who does not fit the typical Hollywood standards in terms of looks.

But, those expected and deserved nominations aside, I still cannot get over some of things the Academy decided to pass on. For example, this year, the Academy decided to nominate only nine films (of the slotted ten) for the Best Picture category, probably coming off the heals of the criticism they received for nominating a movie like The Blind Side two years before. So they only nominate nine films– The Help, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and even War Horse being among these nine. And in doing so, they chose to overlook The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, We Need to Talk About Kevin and Drive? Or they just didn’t think that any of these films could even be considered in the same category as The Help? I mean, come on! The Oscars are supposed to be the definitive of the best films each year, right? Well then, we must be seeing different movies under the same name.

And that’s not all. Where were Ryan Gosling and Albert Brooks’ nominations for their roles in Drive? And perhaps most frustrating of all, where was Tilda Swinton’s more-than-deserved Best Actress nomination for her amazing performance in We Need to Talk About Kevin?

And I’m not a crazy feminist here, but in a sea of male Best Director nominees, it would have not only been nice, but also much deserved to see Lynne Ramsay nominated for her film We Need to Talk About Kevin. Or, if that’s too risque for you, what about David Fincher? Did he really not deserve to be recognized for his take on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

Yes, I admit I had high hopes–perhaps even too high of hopes seeing as I was also gunning for an unexpected Elizabeth Olsen Best Actress nomination for her breakout role in Martha Marcy May Marlene– but the Academy proved just how remiss they are with the films and performances they decided to leave out. Instead, the Academy went the safe route. A Best Film category filled with movies made by Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, and Martin Scorsese? How unoriginal.

What does this mean? Nothing, really. I will continue watching the Oscars, and continue hoping that one year, just one year they will get it right. But, sadly, this year ain’t that year.

Slaver By Another Name received just that. The film was screened at Sundance was followed by a Q & A with director Sam Pollard. The film was adapted from the novel Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II which won the Pulitzer prize. And apparently it’s incredible.

Pollard has worked tirelessly in Hollywood for the last 30 plus years, working with topics from Mike Tyson to Jim Crow, and culminating in a Spike Lee collaboration that resulted in an Academy Award nomination (4 Little Girls). But this may be his crowning achievement. This may be where everything finally comes together. Although he has a lot of knowledge and experience with African American rights and struggles, this may be the one that catches people’s attention.

I am not particularly knowledgeable about Pollard’s work to date, but Slavery By Another Name isn’t just another run of the mill documentary. It tackles the issues of post-emancipation slavery in a way that may make people squirm in their seats. Uncomfortable people is often the result of no holds barred story telling. But it also seems that it’s something that should be brought to the forefront of modern history, not glossed over. Apparently, it takes place right after the 1865 freeing of the slaves and how many were forced back into working for nothing in both the north and the south.

One thing is for sure: Pollard will be watched from now on as his film continues to get more and more acclaim and viewing. I, for one, am looking forward to it.