Upcoming Release: Twixt (2011)

Elle Fanning and Val Kilmer

An original (way to go, Hollywood!) gothic horror film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola! I'm already lined up for opening night.

A friend of mine showed me the Twixt trailer early last week -- and it had me intrigued right away. It's not so much a trailer (it's nearly four minutes long) as a sneak peek. It's focuses on a series of bizarre child murders in a small town -- and throws in suggestions of witches and/or vampires as the culprits.

Val Kilmer plays a Stephen King-ish horror novelist who has arrived in town for an autograph signing when he's lured into the murder mysteries by both the local sheriff (Bruce Dern) and a ghostly girl named V (Elle Fanning) who keeps appearing in his dreams. On top of it all, actor Ben Chaplin is listed as playing the role of Edgar Allan Poe. How could you not be intrigued? It all sounds very Stephen King meets Twin Peaks!

Val Kilmer and Ben Chaplin ...as Edgar Allan Poe.

It could be a really interesting departure for Coppola -- no gangsters or rebellious teens in sight. Most of his recent film dealings have been as a producer over the years, so it was about time he got back behind the camera.

My only concern is the reminder of his 1992 foray into supernatural horror -- Bram Stoker's Dracula, with Gary Oldman in the leading role. Although that interpretation of the classic vampire novel has its loyal fans, I could barely sit through it in one sitting. But that was all nearly 20 years ago now and Twixt looks like it has a lot of potential to be a perfectly bizarre and grisly film. I haven't come across an official release date (some websites have different dates than others), but it is listed as being a 2011 film, so it's likely it will be released around Halloween.

I love a good horror film as much as anyone, but so few great ones have come out over the last few years. I have high hopes for Twixt.

What do you think of the sneak peek trailer? 

Movie Review: Super 8

Super 8 (2011)
Directed By: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler and Ron Eldard

This film has been hyped as E.T. meets The Goonies -- and this is precisely one of the biggest problems with Super 8, the big budget blockbuster produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Lost creator, J.J. Abrams. It's trying to be too many things at once and, ultimately, the end result is one big mess of a film.

Set in a fictional Ohio town in 1979, the film opens with the revelation that young Joe (Joel Courtney) has lost his mother in a freak accident at her place of work. Four months later, he's slowly moving on with his life and preparing to enter a kids short film contest with his three best buddies, led by "director" Charles (Riley Griffiths). Using Super 8 technology to film a zombie movie, the boys recruit Alice (Elle Fanning) to play the lone female role in an attempt to add a little emotional depth to the film. Joe and Alice aren't supposed to hang out together, though, as Joe's father, Jackson (Kyle Chandler) blames Alice's father, Louis (Ron Eldard) for his wife's accident. But the two feuding father's are inevitably thrown together when Joe, Alice and their friends witness an epic train crash in the middle of the night and get caught up in the government's cover-up of a really messy, loud, unseen creature.

The first half of Super 8 is enjoyable and holds a lot of potential -- but it just never delivers on the thrills it promises. The film is enveloped in nostalgia and, if nothing else, Abrams paid great attention to detail when it came to the setting and overall atmosphere. It felt like those 1970s Spielberg hits like Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And, with the exception of a couple of modern words kids weren't likely saying in 1979 ("douche", anyone?), Super 8 is ultimately an homage to those classic summer blockbusters from back in the day. It would seem that everything would be headed in the right direction for this to be the major hit of the summer. However, Abrams tries to make Super 8 too many different things at once and, unlike Spielberg, he's unable to pull it off successfully.

Chandler, Courtney, Fanning and Eldard in Super 8.

One of the biggest disappointments is the "big reveal" of the creature that is terrorizing this small Ohio town. The whole first half of the film leaves you anxious to find out what exactly this creature wants and what it is capable of. Abrams builds tension by not letting the viewer know what direction the movie is headed in. But, once we hit the halfway mark, all of that goes downhill. Not only are the viewers left knowing very little about the creature, but when you do actually get to see it, you're likely going to wish that you hadn't. It's a combination of really laughable CGI and one of the worst "kid meets creature" scenes you are ever likely to see. Abrams doesn't pull off emotional cheese quite like Spielberg and Super 8 suffers because of it. The whole second half of the film, specifically the final 20 minutes, are painful to watch. The end result is that it's less of an homage to monster flicks and Spielberg epics and more of a major disappointment.

Unlike other uneven Hollywood blockbusters, watching Super 8 steadily decline in quality as the film progresses is harder to watch simply because it had started off with so much potential. There's a really, really great film in there somewhere, but it gets lost and muddled by a script that wants to be too many different things at once.

The strongest feature of the film? The cast. Newcomer Joel Courtney is a wonderfully natural young actor and he's more than capable of carrying the entire film on his tiny shoulders. It's safe to say we'll be seeing more of him in the future. Then there's Elle Fanning, an incredible actress and arguably the best performer under the age of 18 working in Hollywood today. She's all natural grace and charisma and her portrayal of Alice is that of a young woman on the verge of becoming an adult -- she still retains her childlike wonder while channeling her anger, frustration and loss as well as any adult would. The other young child actors are all excellent, especially Riley Griffiths as the bossy and hilarious director of the zombie flick. Kyle Chandler and Ron Eldard do the best they can with their two underwritten roles as the father's of the main protagonists (you keep hoping to see more a connection between Jackson and his son, Joe, and Louis and his daughter, Alice). It almost seems like a waste that such a talented group of kids, gifted with great comic timing and emotional maturity, should be wasted on a film like Super 8.

In the end, there are both positive and negative attributes to this summer thriller -- it's just a shame that there is more of the latter. It's just further proof that a solid cast can't save the ill-conceived script of a movie with an identity crisis. It's a mess of M. Night Shyamalan proportions.

FINAL GRADE: C+

Movie Review: Somewhere

Somewhere (2010)
Starring: Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning
Written and Directed By: Sophia Coppola

This was one of my most-anticipated films of 2010. I love Sophia Coppola. I think Lost in Translation (2003) is one of the best films of the 2000s. It may be hard for her to top what she managed to achieve with that film. I also thought The Virgin Suicides (1999) was an excellent directorial debut and I even enjoyed Marie Antoinette (2006) even though there are many who despised it.

Somewhere is Coppola's most self-indulgent film. It has long, monotonous scenes of nothing. As a result, the viewer is left with an acute understanding of the point she is trying to make while getting a little restless at the same time. Take for example the opening scene. Hollywood actor Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) drives his expensive (and loud) car around and around in endless circles on a sunny, dusty patch of land in L.A. County. The car circles the entire track at least four times before coming to a stop. Coppola has made her point -- Johnny Marco is aimless, restless and is quickly going nowhere in life. However, it is at the expense of her audience who may become detached and alienated right from the long opening scene.

That being said, Coppola has this knack for exploring an atmosphere. That talent is on full display in Somewhere. Like her previous films, Somewhere is less a cohesive narrative and more of a series of vignettes that allow the viewer a glimpse into the lives of Johnny and his 11-year-old daughter, Cleo (Elle Fanning). The atmosphere on full display is the small bubble Johnny lives in -- which consists of an endless stream of parties and publicity junkets, his near-empty room at the infamous Chateau Marmont and his aimless drives around Hollywood. When Cleo comes to stay with him for a few weeks because her mother needs "time off," Johnny and Cleo embark on a series of little "get-to-know-you" father-daughter bonding moments. Whether spending time together in their massive hotel suite in Italy or simply playing ping-pong near the Chateau Marmont swimming pool, Cleo suddenly provides meaning and purpose to Johnny's life. Sometimes a person's happiness, whether you are rich or poor, can be as simple as having a loving companion at your side.

Somewhere has a very European minimalism feel to its construction. It felt French, if that makes any sense. That minimalist approach isolates Johnny and Cleo in this vapid Hollywood environment. Despite that setting, there is nothing vapid or Hollywood about their bonding experiences. The film excels most when the two lead actors are on the screen together.

Coppola had Dorff and Fanning hang out alone together for weeks leading up to the start of filming. That tactic paid off as the two of them have an undeniable and completely believable chemistry. Johnny treats Cleo less like a daughter and more like an equal partner, suggesting that while Johnny may not have natural paternal instincts when it comes to discipline (he takes Cleo gambling in Las Vegas), he loves his daughter. In a film of long, aimless scenes, it's the performances of Dorff and Fanning that keep the viewer invested in movie. Dorff may not be the most interesting actor, but he does a solid job in Somewhere -- based on his own stalled Hollywood career, Dorff is perfectly cast in the role. However, Fanning is the real star here -- she's an adorable, talented and pretty young woman who is a dozen times more charming than her precocious, overrated older sister, Dakota. I have an appreciation for child actors who actually act like the children they are in their roles, instead of going the wise-beyond-their-years route. Fanning gives a subtle, nuanced performance that is so good that I hope she gets a Best Supporting Actress nod at the Oscars. Her scenes with Dorff and Chris Pontius (the Jackass star plays Johnny's stoner buddy, Sammy) are the highlights of the film.

In the end, Somewhere feels a little hit and miss. While there were some genuinely moving scenes there were also times when I simply just wanted to know a bit more about Johnny and Cleo. I wanted at least one stand-alone scene where they come to terms with one another, as Charlotte and Bob did a few times in Lost in Translation. What was their relationship like before this extended bonding period? How does Johnny really feel about his fame? We know that he's depressed and lonely and isolated in his hotel room, but we don't know when or why those feelings started. That being said, Coppola tends to leave things unsaid -- it's up to the viewer to read into the characters' actions and decide for themselves. Sophia Coppola has never disappointed, though. She remains a unique voice in the world of Hollywood, choosing to quietly focus on people instead of cars, money or extended action sequences.

FINAL GRADE: B