Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber is definitely one of the most quirky and ridiculous films you’ve never seen. It sets out from the very beginning to make sure the audience knows that they have never seen a film quite like Rubber. Why is this film beyond explanation? No reason. And that is exactly what Rubber is — an ode to the ‘no reason’ of cinema. In a strange prologue where one of the characters is speaking directly to the audience he explains the intent of the entire film — “no reason.”

The film revolves around a tire have buried and forgotten in the middle of the desert. The tire, for some unknown reason, wakes up and we follow is discovery of consciousness as well as discovery of his powers. Psychokinetic powers like being able to make things explode. Things like people’s heads. That’s right. A psychokinetic murderous tire that rolls about the desert making heads explode. This tire has a name as well. His name is Robert.

As the film rolls on (did you like that?), we start to disconnect from ‘tire’ and connect with ‘Robert.’ He becomes a sentient being — rubber or not — and the audience gets pulled in to who he is and how he feels. Yes, how the tire feels.

In the film there is a group of people watching from the desert with binoculars. Watching the same thing we are watching on the screen except they are watching it live. Giving commentary as we go and basically echoing what the film audience should be feeling at that time by speaking directly to the audience almost. This meta factor of the film adds a strange layered effect to the story that makes the movie feel like a movie within a movie. Ultimately, it all doesn’t really make any sense, but for a good reason — the absence of reason.

Rubber would have made an incredible short and would have been a cult hit regardless who was reviewing it, but it definitely took a considerable risk by releasing as a feature length film. If the film doesn’t get its hooks in you from the start, you will quickly grow tired of the novelty and start wondering where in the hell it is going and how much longer is it going to take.

For those seeking the genuinely absurd, Rubber will deliver on every note. If you prefer your films, as well as what you do and how you spend your time in life, to have reason, then Rubber probably isn’t for you. Outside of those reservations however, Rubber is a completely ridiculous and fun ride where the filmmaker is basically pointing a finger at himself, as well as the entire history of filmmaking, and laughing by celebrating the asininity and pointlessness of the world of cinema.

The police deputy in the film, played by Thomas F. Duffy, asks the audience in his prologue, “Why can’t we see the air around us?” No reason. Why is the president killed by someone he’s never even met in JFK?” No reason. “Why is E.T. gray?” No reason. Rubber sets out to make you realize and appreciate the “no reason” factor of cinema. By the end you are asking yourself, “Why am I enjoying this?” or even better, “Why am I even watching this?” And the answer is most definitely — no reason.

7 out of 10

Rubber was screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in July of 2010 and there is currently no theatrical or dvd release dates set.

Facebook seems to be taking over the entire world, right? It’s in our government, it’s in our news agencies and it trickles down all the way to our mobile phones. However inevitable it was, it did seem unlikely, and even a little ridiculous, that the back-story to a 26-year-old’s unbelievably successful social networking website would make an interesting and viable film. Deals were made, contracts were signed and here we are with a Facebook movie right around the corner. Not only a Facebook movie, but a Facebook movie with David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin involved and with the doubts on success replaced by interest in possibilities.

The first glimpse and teaser into the world of The Social Network has been released. Check it out below. Read the full story

Despite a nearly 40% drop in ticket sales, Shrek Forever After maintained its number one spot from last week — surely with a substantial helping hand from 3-D venues — fighting off an unusual pairing of two simultaneously released Middle Eastern desert set films.

Prince of Persia‘s meager $30mil opening weekend proves that we still haven’t hit the mark on the video-game-to-film adaptation and Prince is definitely in for the long haul to make up its steep $200mil budget. Narrowly beating out its opening competitor, Sex and the City 2 pulled in $2mil more on 200 less screens than Prince of Persia. Reaching just under half its budget, Sex and the City 2 is fiscally pretty comfortable, but assuming the only true fans of the series rushed out for their fill of sequin covered vapid fashionista nonsense, we should see a significant drop next weekend with Prince of Persia taking the lead.

Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood dropped 40% and 45% respectively making way for the the 2 weekend openers to have an easy take-over.

All in all it was disappointing and uneventful weekend for cinema, and honestly a world where Sex and the City 2 is number 2 in the box office is hardly a world to live in at all. Festival favorite Splice will make a great debut next weekend for horror fans, and hopefully Get Him to the Greek will make us laugh enough we can let Carrie Bradshaw finally fade away into the annals of housewife pandering gay community exploiting television and go the way of her evil second head signature mole — Here one day; Gone the next.

Check out the Top 10 estimates below:

1. Shrek Forever After – $43.3mil; $133mil
2. Sex and the City 2 – $32.1mil (debut)
3. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - $30.1mil (debut)
4. Iron Man 2 - $16mil; $274.6mil
5. Robin Hood - $10.3mil; $83mil
6. Letters to Juliet - $5.9mil; $36.6mil
7. Just Wright – $2.2mil; $18.1mil
8. Date Night – $1.75mil; $93.3mil
9. MacGruber – $1.4mil; $7.1mil
10. How to Train Your Dragon - $1.02mil; $212.6mil

Final box office numbers come out Monday.

What did you watch this weekend?

Music Box Films | Sweden | 152 mins

Adapted from the opening entry to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy novels, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a conventional crime mystery type thriller comparable to the team-driven investigation race against time type mood of the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. While the sound of another Dan Brown edge-of-your-seat formulaic thriller should not sound that appealing, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is served with enough distinctly Euro flair to spice it up considerably for American audiences and make it slightly more appealing.

Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is a very well known and successful journalist for a leading magazine in Sweden and is hired to do some private investigation into the disappearance of a woman 40 years ago. Pierced and bad-ass Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) has been following him throughout his investigation electronically. Lisbeth is a 23-year-old hacker on probation that makes a living by getting paid for small jobs employing her skills as a hacker — however bloated and unrealistic they may be. She begins to uncover details that he has yet to find and starts tipping him off when his investigation begins to slow down. Ultimately, the unlikely duo meet in person and begin working together to uncover a string of murders involving women lasting over 50 years.

The film is being imported to America this year but Europe is much further down the rabbit hole of the saga of Lisbeth Salander. The books were authored by Stockholm journalist Stieg Larsson and were published posthumously following his sudden death in 2004. While America still waits for the third installment of the trilogy, all three books have been long released in Europe as well as all three films.

Sadly, and entirely unsurprisingly, Scott Rudin and David Fincher are already attached to an American remake of the property. The international gross of over $100 million and the fine acting and production values of the already produced and successful films are apparently no match for the unrelenting American aversion to subtitled films as well as the complete lack of original story telling plaguing the studio film industry in the United States. It’s becoming apparent that there is no point in even getting angry when news like this breaks as the American film industry regardless will suck up every successful international property and try to jam it firmly into an American mold. Artistic value and even fiscal success be damned. Will we as the everyday middle class American audience ever happily watch a subtitled film in the theater? We are probably more likely to watch computer animated chipmunks sing or cry our empty souls through Nicholas Sparks painting by numbers the story of love and love lost for the 18th time.

The way the story unfolds is far from revolutionary and it is a textbook example or your standard crime mystery; however, the performances help the film stand out among its peers, of which it has many, and create a level of unique distinction among the mass of look-a-likes. The solid performances and European audience friendly vulgarity and shock play hand-in-hand with the well crafted tension and engaging suspense and deliver a solid adaptation of the first installment of the successful book series. Whether or not this solid foreign film will break through the barricades of the general American ignorance to foreign language film is yet to be seen, but it is a well made and very engaging film despite its flaws in narrative.

8 out of 10

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo had a limited US release on March 19th.

Have you read the book? Interested in the film?

Check out the trailer below.

Todd Phillips and Joel Silver are teaming up with Warner Bros to produce an uncharacteristically low-budget raunch-comedy with British commercial director Nima Nourizadeh making his feature directing debut. While Joel Silver will be the checkbook toting executive producer, Todd Phillips (Due Date, The Hangover, Old School) will be producing as well but will be a constant set presence and the creative driving force of the project.

Any specifics about Project X, as is the current working title of the project, are being kept under very determined lock and key with no hints as to the story or cast other than it will be a high concept comedy with a hard R-rating and will use absolute unknowns to supply the cast. Furthermore, pledging to use unknowns for the project would be an understatement of the intent of Phillips and Silver. The project will be conducting a large scale nation-wide talent search and they are committed to every actor cast in the film to have never been cast in a film before. Not only industry unknowns, but first time screen presence for every single role. This factor is probably what enables this large studio film to be produced for as low a budget as $12 Million.

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Project X will begin production June 14th in Los Angeles after Phillips wraps post-production on Due Date, his upcoming comedy staring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, and before he begins pre-production on the Hangover 2.

A release date for Project X has not been decided yet.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

Robert Downey Jr. revealed to the Associated Press at ShoWest in an interview about his upcoming film Due Date with Zach Galifianakis that he plans to “suit up” for a third Iron Man soon. While no direct quote was published by the AP, it’s pretty safe to assume that Iron Man himself of all people would have the inside information on the future development of the franchise.

His quote revealed no hardfast details like production start times or film release dates, but at least we know that the Iron Man franchise is pushing forward. Downey has already revealed that Iron Man will play a pivotal role in the upcoming Marvel release The Avengers, but there is even speculation that Iron Man 3 will be released before The Avengers.

Iron Man 2 is out on May 7 and in the press lead up to the highly anticipated release we will surely here more about the future of the Iron Man franchise.

How do you feel about planning a 3rd sequel before the 2nd sequel is even released?

Source: AP

Paramount Pictures | USA | 104 mins

Romantic comedies, of the R-rated raunchy varietal, are nearly a dime a dozen these days. The hero comes in with some handicap that increases the difficulty of capturing the eye of the heroine and we watch as the R-rated don’t-watch-this-with-your-grandmother jokes walk us hand in hand towards the inevitable outcome — the girl finally discovers “it” in the guy. While the underdog “she is too good for me” trope is unfortunately one of the few, and I mean few, possible plot scenarios for these types of films, She’s Out of My League takes the standard recipe and reverses it. The guy, who is clearly a “hard 5”, is being chased by the girl who is clearly a “hard 10.” The final product is what was advertised as a forgettable check-the-box romantic date movie bringing the audience consistent laughs, a sweet and unexpected sentimentality along with fresh new faces to break up the monotony of the increasingly stale raunch comedy genre.

The charm of the film is held single-handedly by leading role underachiever and underdog hero Kirk, played by Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up, Tropic Thunder) in what is more than likely his most gawky role to date. Kirk comes complete with the crew of friends consisting of all of the stereotypical male personalities to evenly round out the group. Kirk has come to terms with the constant deprecating jokes from his friends, his less than glamorous job as a TSA agent at the airport and his far from satisfying life. Acceptance is key in the reality of mediocrity and Kirk had no allusions of stepping outside of his caste. Until Molly, played by Alice Eve, stumbles into Kirk’s security line and finds herself going after the “safe bet.” Deciding to go after a guy “like Kirk,” that would be less likely to break her heart, she breaks Kirk out of the “no way can a 5 date a 10,” ramblings of his friends and bumps him up to the big league.

There are no names that will really stick out to the average movie-goer on the filmmaking team with a British director (Jim Field Smith) and the relatively unknown screenwriters of 2008’s Sex Drive and the upcoming Hot Tub Time Machine, Sean Anders and John Morris. The names may be relatively unknown, but are welcomed additions to the relatively shallow talent pool of successful male comedy filmmakers.

She’s Out of My League has some great laugh out loud moments and a really unexpected sweetness and heart to the story, but none of these positive remarks would have been possible without the charming awkwardness of Baruchel. His awkward mannerisms and convincing sentimentality along with the screenplay’s ability to allow him to usher the film along with genuine heartfelt moments in between the F-words and penis jokes easily sets this film above of its peers. Maybe not that classic R-rated romantic comedy that you will pop into the DVD player every time you get drunk, but still a hilarious and touching effort worth checking out.

8 out of 10

Did you check out She’s Out Of My League this weekend?

CJ Entertainment | South Korea | 128 mins

[reposted from Hawaii International Film Festival]

The mother is the origin of all life in this world. The single point of love, passion and life from which all things can be traced back to. Our gatekeepers, guardians and guides throughout life, the mother is there whether we want them to be or not. They stand by their children regardless of fallacy or folly ready to fight to the death for the sparks of life they ushered into this existence. Bong Joon-Ho paints the story of a widowed mother and her emotionally and intelligently inept child with vivacious fervor and visceral emotion that solidly displays the immutable bond of a mother and child. How far will a mother go for the protection of her child? What sins can be committed to guard her child from harm? Bong Joon-Ho pushes the audience to the edge of this question. Read the full story

Jon Favreau (@Jon_Favreau) and Paramount Pictures/Marvel Entertainment have finally premiered the second trailer to the wildly successful comic book franchise Iron Man 2 on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show after the Academy Awards tonight. The trailer shows extended versions of cuts already released including some great footage of Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).

Read the full story

Critically acclaimed prison drama A Prophet (Un Prophète) by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard swept the 35th annual César awards, France’s equivalent to the Academy Awards, this Saturday by taking home nine awards. Awards received included all the major categories including French film of the year, best director and best actor. Winning nine awards puts Prophet in position as the second most winning film in the history of The César awards behind tied for first place The Last Metro (1980) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) with 10 wins each.

Prophet was nominated in 13 categories in The Césars and has won in addition to the nine César awards, the 2009 BAFTA award for foreign film, the Grand Prix at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival as well as many other smaller film and critic association awards worldwide. Prophet is nominated for The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film as well. However, along side Prophet is Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon which beat out Prophet at The Cannes Film Festival for the Palme d’Or and won the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

While by the sheer number of awards Prophet has accumulated worldwide it may seem natural that it is a solid choice for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, traditionally The Academy does not strictly follow trends of the festival circuits and other national awards around the world in their decision on a winner for this category.

Prophet leading star and winner of Best Actor César and Best Newcomer César, Tahir Rahim said, “Long live French cinema,” during his acceptance speech for his second award. It is clear with truly great films like A Prophet that French cinema is alive and well and we can only hope that The Academy recognizes A Prophet as the incredible filmmaking achievement that it is as well as take note of the global recognition it has received when making their decision for a winner.

Source: THR