I’ve been intrigued with the idea of We Need to Talk About Kevin since my sister read, and highly praised the book. A film adaptation seemed like a good idea. And throwing Tilda Swinton into the mix is never a bad idea. The film has a 92% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes, although it should be noted only thirteen reviews have been counted so far. At this point, I’m in. Here’s Oscilloscope’s overview, some stills, and below that is the newly released French trailer.

A suspenseful and psychologically gripping exploration into a parent dealing with her child doing the unthinkable, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is told from the perspective of Eva, played by Tilda Swinton in a tour-de-force performance. Always an ambivalent mother, Eva and Kevin have had a contentious relationship literally from Kevin’s birth. Kevin (Ezra Miller), now 15-years-old, escalates the stakes when he commits a heinous act, leaving Eva to grapple with her feelings of grief and responsibility, as well as the ire of the community-at-large. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN explores nature vs. nurture on a whole new level as Eva¹s own culpability is measured against Kevin¹s innate evilness, while Ramsay¹s masterful storytelling leaves enough moral ambiguity to keep the debate going.

We Need to Talk About Kevin Bande-annonce by toutlecine

Radiohead’s new record, The King Of Limbs, is presented here as the world’s first* Newspaper Album, comprising:

• Two clear 10″ vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve.
• A compact disc.
• Many large sheets of artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradeable plastic to hold it all together.
• The Newspaper Album comes with a digital download that is compatible with all good digital media players.
• The Newspaper Album will be shipped on Monday 9th May 2011 you can, however, enjoy the download on Saturday 19th February 2011.
• Shipping is included in the prices shown.
• One lucky owner of the digital version of The King Of Limbs, purchased from this website, will receive a signed 2 track 12″ vinyl.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be the one to win that signed copy. There’s only a couple Radiohead fans out there, right? Pre-order it here.

Then Saint Valentine was all like, more Radiohead love! Pitchfork announced later in the day that Johnny Greenwood will be scoring the Tilda Swinton-starring The Truth About Kevin. Kevin was all ready a much anticipated film for me. And with Greenwood on board (remember that awesome score to There Will Be Blood?), this is shaping up to a big deal. At least for me.

And to wrap it up, /Film announced that Lars von Trier’s upcoming sci-fi drama Melancholia (another of my most anticipated, upcoming releases) has been picked up by Magnolia for US distribution, nearly guaranteeing that at some point, I will be seeing this in a theatre sometime in the near or distance future. And let’s be honest, von Trier’s films are much, much more digestible on the big screen. Some guy named Todd from a website named Twitch even got to see a promo for the film in Berlin this last weekend and had the following to say about it:

In short, it is gorgeous – instantly recognizable as Von Trier’s work and very likely the most commercial iteration of his talent that we have seen yet. This in no way implies that he has dumbed things down, just that the wild transgressions of Antichrist are not present here – where they would be entirely inappropriate – and that the imagery is so beautiful that this is a film that you could clearly cut one hell of a trailer for…Though firmly grounded in reality there are a lot of special effects in this and they are integrated seamlessly, shots of static electricity arcing off skin and dead birds falling from the sky in super slow motion being particularly effective.

Sounds like a win win win to me.

And to top it off, I visited Tilda Swinton’s IMDb page and saw this photo:

Best. Valentine’s. Day. Ever.

The is as lavish and luxurious as most anything I’ve ever seen.  The story follows a young Russian matriarch named Emma (Tilda Swinton), who marries into an extremely rich Italian family, surnamed Ricchi.  The film begins with the birthday party of Emma’s father-in-law Eduardo Sr., the owner and CEO of the Recchi family business.  He announces his retirement and leaves the family business to Emma’s husband Tancredi (Pippo Delbono), and Tancredi’s son, Eduardo Jr. (Flavio Parenti).  The announcement is shocking, but being a polite, emotionally veiled family, no one questions the decision.

After this party, the film moves forward a few months.  Eduardo Sr. has died, and at first, it’s slightly mystifying why director Luca Guadagnino (who write the screenplay as well), chose to gloss over such a major event in the family.  It becomes clear however, that Guadagnino wanted to save most of his screen time for Ms. Swinton.  I’ve never been a huge fan of hers, but after this breathtaking performance, I’ve been won over.  There’s no question about her talent now.  She even managed, somehow, to look less androgynous, and become a pillar of femininity.

It becomes apparent that Eduardo Sr.’s death serves as an unspoken permission to deviate from the ordinary.  Tancredi seems very interested in selling off the family business, a business he promised not to sell a few months earlier.  Emma’s daughter Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwacher) breaks up with her boyfriend because she has fallen in love with a woman (although the reason isn’t made known to the other characters until later in the film).  Emma allows herself to stray beyond the marriage, and begin an affair with Eduador Jr.’s friend, and talented chef, Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini). Antonio’s talents in the kitchen bring Emma to an almost orgasmic state, where everything else in the restaurant goes dark, allowing for an intensely private and passionate moment between her and her meal. Yes, things are changing for the Recchis.

Guadagnino has a career of directing films and operas about the Italian aristocracy. And like Claude Chabrol of France, he seems to have found himself a genre where no one could ever replace him. John Adams’ particularly beautiful and soaring score provides a rather perfect soundtrack to this strange and beautiful life lead by Emma and her family. A satisfying metaphor of all the emotion just beneath the surface, aching to be set free.

4 out of 4 stars

Jarmusch wrote the script for this film, and its minimalism is intriguing in the same way I very much enjoyed Gus Van Sant’s Gerry; not so much a straight forward narrative, but fun, and intriguing nonetheless.  The story follows a character only credited as ‘Lone Man’ (Isaach De Bankolé). His story begins at an airport where he meets with two men Creole, and French. Creole speaks in Creole, giving Lone Man densely ambiguous and philosophical advice as to how to be successful in what seems to be a contract job the three have entered in to.

At this point, armed with strange instructions, Lone Man travels throughout Spain (starting in Madrid), meeting with variously interesting characters with whom he trades matchboxes hiding secret messages.  Or diamonds.  The characters he meets have similarly enigmatic names: Blonde (Tilda Swinton), Mexican (Gael García Bernal), American (Bill Murray), Molecules (Youki Kudoh), etc., etc.

The cinematography is technically brilliant.  This is thanks to cinematographer Christopher Doyle (who also frequently works on  Van Sant and  Wong Kar Wai films).  He achieved a beautiful, dream-like world, where everyone is mysterious and interesting.  In a conversation Blonde has with Lone Man, she says, ‘The best films are like dreams you’re never really sure you had.’  With a steady (if slow pace) of drifting characters, smooth dialogue, repetition of themes and ideas, and a bitchin’ soundscape, you’ll feel like you’re watching someone else’s dream.  The film is absolutely self-indulgent and pretentious.  But if you can get past all that, you’ll find it extremely thought-provoking.

3 out of 4 stars

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is one long-ass movie.  Let’s break it down into three parts, each one hour long. The first act is where the movie shines (and it’s probably the only part the Academy voters will remember when awarding those little statues in February).  Brad Pitt plays Benjamin, the new-born old man.  He’s left on the steps of a retirement home, where he’s adopted under the guise of her nephew by a worker there named Queenie (Taraji P. Henson).  Despite the fact he’s growing young, he fits right in among the oldies.  The special effects are remarkable in this first act, this is where the film actually merits attention from Oscar.  Well done on this count.  Benjamin meets a kindred spirit in Daisy (Cate Blanchett), the granddaughter of one of Ben’s roommates.  They start this on again off again thing that drags out over the following two hours, but really only manages to keep your attention for less than half that time.

Daisy gets seduced by New York life, and becomes one of those self-congratulatory Manhattanites, a very successful ballet dancer, and, well, kind of a ho.  In the meantime, Ben is off experiencing the world by means of a tug boat, visiting ports all over the world.  This travelogue teaches Benjamin a lot of important things.  He has his first love affair (with a watered down Tilda Swenson), his ship and crew are commissioned into the Navy where he’s confronted with a lot of death, and finally, he returns home a man.

It’s here, when Benjamin and Daisy are coming close to the same physical age, that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button just gets dull.  It’s not Blanchett’s fault, who shines bright.  It’s not Swinton, or Henson who did what they could with Eric Roth’s script.  It’s not the cinematographer’s fault, who made most scenes look like beautiful paintings.  The problem is simply that the story just goes way to long, much longer than even Fincher can sustain, and way longer than Pitt can.  Pitt seems to loose all gusto once the make-up and special effects go away.  I don’t know (and I don’t really care) if it was big studio demands that made Fincher water this story down to a tame PG-13, but it definitely seemed to restrain some of his artistic capacity.  What’s most frustrating is this film is leading the Oscar-buzz race for Best Picture.  And it’s just not worthy.  Benjamin Button is too long, rambles too much, and leaves you let down after months of promising hype.  Even so, it has some shining moments and probably merits a viewing before Oscar night.

2 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 76% – Cream of the Crop: 79%

The Coen brothers supply the film with a terrific, clockwork script (the kind we’ve learned to expect from them) that shows their fascination with those who fatally act first, before learning all the facts.  Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt lead the whole cast with their comedic prowess.  Pitt is a good actor, there’s no doubt, but his best roles are the ones of the stupid pretty boy, and Burn is the perfect example.  The rest of the cast seems to be a who’s who of the acting world (Tilda Swinton, despite being involved in that Narnia nonsense, must have joined this esteemed rank as of her Oscar win earlier this year).

The plot is so complicated (and I don’t want to give away any spoilers), a summary isn’t really possible.  At the end, it doesn’t make a whole lot of a sense, but suffice it to say, this film is terrifically funny, and you should watch it.

3 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 78% – Cream of the Crop: 54%

Below is the ‘approved for all audiences’ trailer, and the redband trailer (squeamish be warned).