Art-House Dramas:
Plot
Summary: The film looks into the life of Jiro Horikoshi, a man who
designed Japanese fighter planes (like the Mitsubishi A6M Zero) during WWII. Filmmakers: The Wind Rises is apparently legendary
Japanese animator and storyteller Hayao Miyaki’s last film (unless he decides
to come back and make another film, of course). He is known for such brilliant
works as My
Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery
Service, Princess
Mononoke, Spirited
Away, and Howl’s
Moving Castle. Miyaki is again working with frequent collaborator composer Joe Hisaishi. Cast: The English version voice cast includes: Joseph
Gordon-Levitt, Emily
Blunt, Mae
Whitman, Jennifer
Grey, Stanley
Tucci, Elijah
Wood, John
Krasinski, William
H. Macy, Mandy
Patinkin, Darren
Criss, Werner
Herzog, and Martin Short.
Expectations:
The Wind Rises is nominated for Best Animated Feature at this
year’s Academy Awards. It was the favorite among critics in 2013, but it faces
stiff competition for the Oscar from Frozen
(which I loved). This is of course a must-see for fans of wonderful animated
features as Miyaki is a master. This film is a bit different, however, as it is
not a fantasy (like his past work) but rather a biography drama of a real
person in Japanese history. Trailer: Here.
Plot
Summary: Things start to get out of control for a group of teenage
friends when they discover the plans to a time machine, construct it, and use
it to alter their lives. Filmmakers: This
marks the feature debut of director Dean Israelite. He is working with
cinematographer Matthew
J. Lloyd (Robot
& Frank). Cast: The ensemble
features fresh faces including: Sofa Black-D’Elia,
Jonny Weston, Ginny Gardner, Katie Garfield, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista,
Michelle DeFraites,
and Patrick
Johnson. Expectations: Welcome to
Yesterday is yet another cheaply made found-footage style narrative. Most of
these films are terrible and not worth your time; however, there have also been
a few good ones as well: Chronicle
and Project X
come to mind. Welcome to Yesterday looks interesting. It very well might be a
decent thriller. It is probably worth checking out via Netflix (assuming it
does turn out to be good). Trailer: Here.
Art-House Comedies:
Plot
Summary: There is feud stretching back multiple generations between the
Moroi (peaceful, mortal vampires) and the Strigoi (bloodthirsty, immortal
vampires). Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir (half human/vampire), a guardian of the
Moroi. She is tasked with protecting the Moroi Princess Vasilia Dragomir as
they attend St. Vladimir’s Academy (a high school) from Strigoi attack. Filmmakers: Director Mark Waters seems like a good
fit for this, as he has a good background in teen comedies, such as: Freaky Friday
and Mean Girls.
He is working with composer Rolfe Kent (who
also scored Mean Girls for Waters), cinematographer Tony
Pierce-Roberts (Underworld),
and production designer Frank Walsh (who
is also working as the art director on 2014’s Maleficent).
Cast: Zoey Deutch
and Lucy Fry
star, with Danila
Kozlovsky, Gabriel
Byrne, Dominic
Sherwood, Olga
Kurylenko, Sarah
Hyland, Cameron
Monaghan, Claire
Foy, and Joely
Richardson in support. Expectations: Vampire
Academy is clearly yet another attempt to capitalize on the potential of the
young adult market (specifically the Twilight fan base)
with a teen fantasy comedy/drama/romance series based on a popular series of
books (not surprisingly, a series I have never heard of, but that was true of
Twilight, The
Hunger Games, and pretty much every other YA book series too). There seems
to be a lot of excitement and anticipation for this film on a few movie blogs,
but I have not seen much mainstream marketing. I have a feeling this might just
exist as a cult film with limited mainstream crossover potential. Instead of
going big budget right off the bat with an unproven franchise, the producers
have opted to test the market with a relatively inexpensive film. Not a bad
idea. This does not look like a film that should interest me (and I am kind of
sick of weird vampire stories), but at the same time it looks kind of fun too and
it is nice to see that this is more on the comedy side than yet another overly
melodramatic fantasy drama. Trailer: Here.
Lust for Love (Anton King) –
Romantic Comedy – Feb 7
Plot
Summary: Astor has always had a crush on Mila. Finally he gets a chance
to woo her, but his inexperience with women gets in the way. Distraught, he
seeks help from Cali (Mila’s former best friend) to teach him how to properly court
women with the aim of winning Mila back (but, this being a rom-com, Cali and
Astor will likely develop feelings too making things complicated). Filmmakers: This marks the feature debut of
writer-director Anton King. He is working with composer Darren Morze,
cinematographer Adam
Bricker, and production designer Rachel Payne. Cast: The film is a Dollhouse
reunion of sorts. It stars Fran Kranz
and Dichen
Lachman (who is also a producer on the film), while featuring Beau Garrett,
Caitlin Stasey,
Enver Gjokaj,
Miracle Laurie,
Felicia Day,
and Maurissa
Tancharoen in support. Kranz, Lachman, Gjokaj, Laurie, and Day were all on
Dollhouse together, and Tancharoen co-wrote a number of episodes. Expectations: Lust for Love will be available
On-Demand February 7th, which is how many indie films are being
distributed these days – straight to the internet. It looks like a great little
romantic comedy, a genre I have always loved despite its awful mishandling for
the most part over the last couple decades. As one of the few fans of
Dollhouse, I am excited to see these actors all work together again, as they
did have great chemistry on the show. I think this is definitely one to check
out On-Demand or on Netflix for fans of the genre. Trailer:
Here.
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