david fincher – We Are Movie Geeks

Steven Spielberg To Screen The “Director’s Cut” Of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND At TCM Classic Film Festival

For those of us who remember going to the movies in 1977, we were treated to STAR WARS, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, AIRPORT 77, THE CAR, ORCA and CAPRICORN ONE. There was a rich wealth of movies to choose from and a time when audiences in their local cinemas would cheer and clap for the heroes. Then on December 14, 1977, coming off the success of JAWS, that director Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi masterpiece graced the screens. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND was the filmmaker’s next movie and, along with star Richard Dreyfuss and the magnificent score from composer John Williams, took audiences on a journey of mankind’s first meeting with aliens and let us know we are not alone in the universe.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning for Best Cinematography by Director of Photography Vilmos Zsigmond (The Sugarland Express).

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) today announced additional talent and programming for this year’s 15^th annual TCM Classic Film Festival running April 18 – 21, 2024 in Hollywood, including a Q&A with Spielberg and UCLA Film School’s Howard Suber ahead of the director’s cut of the film.

The festival will also include a closing night screening of 1987’s comedy Spaceballs presented by writer and director Mel Brooks.

The lineup for the weekend will also feature:

A Little Romance (1979) with star Diane Lane in conversation with TCM Host Ben Mankiewicz
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) with stars Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins in attendance
Filmmaker Nancy Meyers introduces the world premiere restoration of one of her favorite movies, North By Northwest (1959), completed by Warner Bros. and The Film Foundation
Director David Fincher presenting a world premiere restoration IMAX® screening of his 1995 thriller Se7en
A cast reunion for Little Women (1994) featuring Trini Alvarado, Samantha Mathis and Eric Stoltz
A world premiere restoration of The Searchers (1956), completed by Warner Bros. and The Film Foundation, introduced by writer/director Alexander Payne
Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings introduces a U.S. premiere restoration of The Small Back Room (1949), restored by The Film Foundation and courtesy of Rialto Pictures

In addition, TCM and Warner Bros. will present That’s Vitaphone!: The Return of Sound-on-Disc. For the first time in more 90 years, six hilarious, often outlandish, Vitaphone vaudeville shorts of the 1920s will be projected in 35mm, with sound played back from their original 16-inch discs on a turntable designed and engineered by Warner Bros. Post Production Engineering Department. In 1926, Warner Bros., with technology developed by Western Electric, introduced Vitaphone, a system of adding high fidelity synchronized sound to motion pictures, using discs mechanically coupled to the movie projector. Vitaphone would usher in the talking picture with the premiere of The Jazz Singer in October 1927. By the early 1930s, though, sound-on-disc would be replaced industry-wide by the less cumbersome sound on film. This replica of a Vitaphone machine, the only in existence, marks the first time modern audiences will be able to experience these films as they did in the 1920s, using discs restored from the era. In attendance to provide context will be Bruce Goldstein, founder and co-president of Rialto Pictures, Warner Bros. post-production engineers Steve Levy and Bob Weitz, and Vitaphone expert Shane Fleming.

For more information, please visit http://tcm.com/festival.

THE KILLER (2023) – Review

I’ve had them and I’m sure you’ve had them. Lousy days at work will happen at some point and many times it’s our fault. We’ve “scrooched the pooch” as they say, made an error, perhaps a miscalculation or even an uncrossed”t”. What’s the worst that could happen? Well, we could get fired or perhaps suspended or given a “stern warning” maybe along with a verbal “dressing down”. Yes, that’s with most regular jobs, but what if your profession is life or death? But more toward the latter if you’re a “murder merchant”, or a “gun for hire”. That’s at the heart of a new thriller from one of the most inventive filmmakers of the last few decades. He gives us a look at a “very bad, no-good day”, leading to several wretched weeks in the life of THE KILLER.

After a sprightly credit sequence highlighting the “tools of his trade”, we meet a highly-paid professional hitman (Michael Fassbender), whose real name is a mystery to us (and probably to many of his “hires”). His latest gig is in Paris (nice) but most of his time is spent waiting…and waiting in an “under-renovation” office space in a building across from a swanky hotel. The days pass so very slowly until his “target” finally arrives. The victim is in the sites of his top-of-the-line rifle, the trigger is pulled, and things “go sideways”. The hitman makes a mad dash into the Paris streets to the airport. There’s a heated cell phone exchange in which his “agent” says he’ll try to “make things right” with”the client”. After a stopover in Florida, “the killer” makes his way to his secluded estate in the Dominican Republic, arriving moments after some person or persons trashed the place, leaving someone near death. It’s then that the hitman becomes a detective, zeroing in on the “invaders”, as he “burns his bridges’ to exact his revenge. Can he find those responsible before he becomes a target? And can he ever really leave his past, and “the life” behind him?

The lead role provides a superb showcase for Fassbender, one of the screen’s most engaging actors. The title character doesn’t have many spoken lines directed at others, but his “stream of consciousness” narration not only guides us in his planning and preparation but offers terrific reflections, often very funny, on humanity in general. While making his way around the globe (literally)Fassbender does his best to be unnoticeable (with awkward hats swallowing his face) which gives his full “reveals’ a greater impact as his piercing glare bores into the sole of those in his gaze. Ths film’s other “big name” is probably Tilda Swinton as The Expert” who falls into The Killer’s vision. For a time she believes her air of refined elegance will charm him until we see her accept her “fate” with a resigned dignity. That’s unlike her partner, Sala Baker as “The Brute”, who proves to be the savage destructive force that may thwart The Killer’s quest. Charles Parnell is terrific as Hodges, “The Lawyer”, who truly believes that his logical arguments will force The Killer to spare him and come back into “the fold”. Ditto for Arliss Howard as the befuddled Claybourne AKA “The Client”, who realizes that his greed has led him to his probable doom. There’s also strong supporting work from Kerry O’Malley as the fluttery aide to Hodges and Gabriel Polanco as the “caught in the crosshairs” cabbie.

For director David Fincher, this film marks a return to his roster of stylized thrillers begun almost thirty years ago with SE7EN, after his most recent biopic MANK. But unlike those earlier films, this tale is “stripped down” to present a taut thriller via his frequent collaborator Andrew Kevin Walker’s adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel by Alexis Nolent and Luc Jacamon. Fincher’s “rat-a-tat” use of quick editing (foreshadowed in the splendid opening titles enhanced with 60s retro graphics) immediately pulls us in. It even makes the lengthy “stakeouts” full of foreboding menace. The excellent location shooting gives us a peek into the title character’s skills in any setting from the tropics to the chill of Chicago. All of this is ably accented by the rich score by other Fincher “regulars” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Yes, the tension level is high, but there are great dollops of dark humor throughout (loved the roster of phony, but familiar aliases). This should stand alongside the great hitman thrillers like THE MECHANIC and DAY OF THE JACKAL, while also giving a nod to Soderbergh’s HAYWIRE. Fans of flashy crime capers, and especially Fassbender, should set their sites on THE KILLER.

3 out of 4

THE KILLER is now playing in select theatres

Watch David Fincher’s THE KILLER, Starring Michael Fassbender, In Select Cinemas October And On Netflix November 10

Director David Fincher (THE SOCIAL NETWORK, GONE GIRL, MANK) returns with his upcoming film THE KILLER. After a fateful near-miss, an assassin battles his employers and himself on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.

Starring Michael Fassbender, watch the brand new trailer now.

The film also features Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton.

THE KILLER is based on writer Alexis “Matz” Nolent and artist Luc Jacamon’s 1998 graphic novel. Andrew Kevin Walker, who last collaborated with Fincher on Se7en, wrote the film’s screenplay. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will compose the score.

Following its premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 3, THE KILLER opens in select theaters in October and Netflix on November 10.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80234448

The Killer. Michael Fassbender as an assassin in The Killer.. Cr. Netflix ©2023

MANK – Review

Class is now in session for Film History 101. And this will be on the final. Hopefully, that didn’t inspire too many nervous flashbacks, though I always looked forward to the few cinema courses I could take. Now the intro is spot on because this new film is mainly about another film that did make history, for lots of reasons. It truly stood out despite being produced during the second greatest year of Hollywood’s Golden Age (just two years after the prolific 1939). Yes, like 2012’s HITCHCOCK it is a biography of a very creative artist, but it focuses on one seminal work (PSYCHO for that earlier film). Oh, and instead of a director we now shine a much-deserved spotlight on the lowly, neglected writer, much like 2015’s TRUMBO. Well perhaps in this case not too neglected since he shared in the classic film’s only Oscar win. That iconic masterpiece is CITIZEN KANE, and its co-screenwriter is the talented Herman J. Mankiewicz, known to his many friends, and a few foes, as MANK.

Slow fade in on a dusty road near Victorville California early 1940s. A caravan of sedans pulls up to a rustic house just off a dirt road. It’s a place far away from the distractions of “Tinsel-Town”, ideal for the hard-drinking screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman). He’s been tasked to pen the movie debut of the current media darling, the 24-year-old “wunderkind” Orson Welles (Tom Burke). Along with “Mank” is one of the project’s producers John Houseman (Sam Troughton), a young typist/transcriber, British “war-bride” Rita Alexander (Lily Collins), and his personal nurse “Fraulein” Frieda (Monica Gossman), an essential aide after an auto accident (he was the unlucky passenger) has encased much of his lower body in plaster. Before leaving, Houseman phones Welles who shortens the deadline from 90 to 60 days. As Mank settles in, his mind recalls incidents from his movie work a decade prior. His nights back then are spent “in his cups” despite the efforts of his wife “poor” Sara (Tuppence Middleton). His hung-over days are confined to the legendary writers’ room at MGM under the watchful eye of its prickly, manipulative figurehead Louis B. Meyer (Arliss Howard). And despite his indulgences he becomes the adored friend and confidant of film star Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried), not-so-secretly the “kept woman” of newspaper magnate William Randolf Hearst (Charles Dance). As the story bounces from the present to past and back again, Mack attends the lavish parties at Hearst’s San Simeon while learning of his host’s plan (helped by Meyer) to use staged propaganda newsreels to thwart Upton Sinclair’s campaign for governor. Eventually the drawbridge to Hearst Castle is closed to Mank. Could the Welles screenplay be his revenge against his former chums? As Mank denies this, will Davies really believe him? What of the efforts to shut down the production? Will Mank be banned from the movie biz?

The title role provides a great showcase for the always compelling Oldman who plays Mank almost as a “world-weary” private eye who’d be a fixture in flicks later in that decade. Even in those flashbacks, we know that Mank’s been through enough heartache and disappointment to send most screenwriters off to the pawnshop to “hock” their typewriters. But as “down” as he gets, Mank still has the perfect verbal “burn”, which Oldman tosses off effortlessly. Despite his dour demeanor, Oldman shows us Mank’s humanity whether he’s helping out a panhandling pal or commiserating with screen royalty. Speaking of which, the film’s most delightful surprise is the dazzling turn by Seyfried as Davies. With her bright expressive eyes, she projects a magnetism that captivates everyone around her from lowly laborers to boozy writers to “gazillionaires”. Seyfried conveys her mischievous wit but really gets to the heart of her character as she opens up about her “beau”. It seems that the “princess locked in the tower” (she keeps a radio-telephone stashed away for private calls) is really in love with her “captor”. Let’s hope this leads to more frequent film roles for the talented Ms. S. As for the other women in Mank’s life, Collins is good as the no-nonsense assistant, but the role seems too similar to the secretary in Oldman’s DARKEST HOUR. Much the same can be said for Middleton who tries, often in vain, to steer her hubby away from her indulgent impulses. Troughton is perfectly prim and pompous as the stuffy Houseman, while Burke is the ultimate “big dog” treating every room as his theatre, as the bellowing Welles. And happily, there are some great villains for Oldman to confront. Howard’s Meyer projects a “kindly grandpa” persona that masks a cruel vindictive “penny-pincher”, while Dance is a looming, smiling cobra as Hearst, ready to strike at any affront, his venom poisoning his decadent opulent surroundings.

Director David Fincher, working with the screenplay by his late father Jack, has crafted a wonderful homage to the legacy of KANE while utilizing many of its techniques (the slow fade to black, focused foregrounds and backgrounds, high angle shots, etc.). Though there are a few movie trivia slip-ups (no Wolfman in the early 30s), most of the film lore is solid. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross contribute a lush, haunting score that has just a hint of Herriman. But the film’s greatest asset (aside from Oldman and Seyfried) may be the superb silvery black and white cinematography by Erik Messerschmidt with its languid deep shadows shattered by blazing white shafts of sunlight. He captures the glorious kitsch of Simeon while hinting that it may be a gilded gold prison in the future. The visuals make some of the pacing problems a bit more bearable. The whole “sacrificial lamb” to the power-grabbing duo subplot feels heavy-handed and obvious. Plus the countless scenes of a shuffling, drunken chain-smoking Mank with his comb-over dangling over one eye as he slurs sloshy soliloquies becomes repetitive as the film lurches slowly forward. At least we have ample time to gaze longingly at the fabulous fashions and aristocratic autos of the long-gone gods of the screen. MANK is an adoring, slightly bloated, look back at the creative process that birthed a true piece of cinema that will inspire generations to come.

3 out of 4

MANK is playing in select theatres and streams exclusively on Netflix beginning Friday, December 4^th, 2020.

“What’s in the Box?” Brad Pitt in SEVEN Screens February 14th at Webster University

David Fincher’s SEVEN (1995) screens February 14th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium(470 E Lockwood Ave). The film starts at 7pm. A Facebook invite for the screening can be found HERE

Taking what it wants amongst crime thriller tropes and disregarding the rest, David Fincher’s Seven remains one of the most transgressive Hollywood movies of the modern era. Here Morgan Freeman plays the jaded Detective Somerset, soon to retire and trying to solve one last big case, but he’s unhelpfully paired with the hotheaded young Detective Mills (Brad Pitt). Together they chase a serial killer who connects his murders by targeting people who brazenly break one of the seven deadly sins.

Admission is:

$7 for the general public
$6 for seniors, Webster alumni and students from other schools
$5 for Webster University staff and faculty

Free for Webster students with proper I.D.

The First Rule of FIGHT CLUB is to See it Midnights This weekend at The Tivoli

“I got in everyone’s hostile little face. Yes, these are bruises from fighting. Yes, I’m comfortable with that. I am enlightened.”

FIGHT CLUB screens this Friday and Saturday nights (July 19th and 20th) at The Tivoli Theater as part of their ‘Reel Late at The Tivoli’ Midnight Series. A Facebook invite for the screening can be found HERE

No Merchandising. Editorial Use Only. No Book Cover Usage. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Merrick Morton/20th Century/REX/Shutterstock (5884287o) Edward Norton, Brad Pitt Fight Club – 1999 Director: David Fincher 20th Century Fox USA Scene Still Drama

“Nobody should see FIGHT CLUB!” is what Rosie O’Donnell exclaimed on her talk show in 1999. “Shame on you Brad!” she added. “How many people with serious mental problems are going decide that the cure is to shoot themselves in the head!?” she asked in an apparent rage. Can a person miss the point of a movie any further? Despite Ms O’Donnell’s rant FIGHT CLUB will be long remembered as a film that defined a generation. Like REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE decades before FIGHT CLUB summed up its generation in all its materialistic , capitalistic glory. You’ll have the chance to experience FIGHT CLUB on the big screen this weekend (September 13th and 14th) when it plays at the Tivoli midnights this weekend as part of their ‘Reel Late at the Tivoli’ series.

FIGHT CLUB is a definitively ‘male’ movie (maybe that’s why Rosie didn’t like it it). This is neither good nor bad, but it is undeniable. The character of Marla as played by Helena Bonham Carter is entertaining, but mostly defined by her relationship to the two male leads. The picture would have almost worked without her, yet the film appeals to both men and women. FIGHT CLUB has great speed, in dialogues and actions, it has a great cast (even Meat Loaf is good), and most important it was deep, so deep that nobody noticed it was deep because the depth of FIGHT CLUB is beyond the tears and silences found in the usual deep movie. If you’ve seen it dozens of times and don´t know what movie to watch this weekend, go see FIGHT CLUB midnights at The Tivoli. If you’ve already seen it and don’t like it, go see FIGHT CLUB midnights at The Tivoli. If you’ve never seen it, I envy you seeing it for the first time. Go see FIGHT CLUB midnights at The Tivoli.

The Tivoli’s located at 6350 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO. Admission is a mere $8!

The Tivoli’s website can be found HERE

Here’s the line-up for the other films coming to ‘Reel Late at The Tivoli:

July 19-20 FIGHT CLUB

July 26-27 SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

Aug. 2-3 POLICE STORY (1985) Jackie Chan classic, 4K digital restoration! – subtitled

Aug. 9-10 HOT FUZZ

Aug. 16-17 ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL – New digital re-master – 40^th Anniversary

Aug. 23-24 NINJA SCROLL (1993) – subtitled

Aug. 30-31 LABYRINTH

Sept. 6-7 HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH New 4K digital re-master

GONE GIRL – The Review

Smart, dark, and dangerous, GONE GIRL shows that a contemporary whodunit can still rivet sophisticated modern audiences. Director David Fincher presents a dual storyline that unearths the dirty secrets at the heart of a modern marriage from both sides while spoofing the frenzy of modern tabloid media. Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) is a recently unemployed journalist forced home from New York to Southwest Missouri to take care of his dying mother. When she passes, he opens ‘The Bar’ with his twin sister, Margo (Carrie Coon), which gives him a place to drink in the morning. Amy (Rosamund Pike), once the young inspiration for a popular children’s book character, is Nick’s out-of-his-league wife, a trust-fund princess too good to be trapped in cow-town Missouri (and to add insult to injury, GONE GIRL was filmed in Rush Limbaugh’s hometown!!). On the occasion of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick reports Amy missing. Under pressure from the police and growing media assault, Nick’s portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble and soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior begin to implicate him. Is Nick a cold-blooded killer who’s murdered his wife, or is there another explanation?

GONE GIRL relies on twists, so I’ll just say the screenplay by Gillian Flynn (from her novel) is watertight, as this type of mystery must be, and the performances are all top-notch. The scenes with Nick professing his innocence at press conferences on his front lawn and TV appearances are highlights. Affleck has always been a less likeable presence than many of his handsome A-list contemporaries. With what Amy calls his “villainous chin”, Nick’s not nearly as smart as he thinks he is and Affleck is perfectly cast. I’ve had it bad for Rosamund Pike since she played Miss Frost in that last Brosnan 007. I’ve watched her ethereal beauty in minor roles since but her revelatory turn in GONE GIRL should push her into A-list territory (and I suspect garner her an Oscar nom), though it’s dangerous to describe the details of her perf without spoiling the film’s tricks. Unknown (at least to me) actress Carrie Coon is outstanding in the meaty role of Nick’s voice-of-reason sister. Tyler Perry, usually a distraction when he’s not wearing a dress, is excellent as Nick’s media-savvy attorney, and check out Missi Pyle as a Nancy Grace clone who, try as she may, still can’t quite nail the repulsiveness that is Nancy Grace. GONE GIRL occasionally borders on trashy melodrama, especially with the introduction of Neil Patrick Harris as Desi Collings, a creepy St. Louis rich boy with his own weird Amy fetish and Trent Reznor’s unconventional score often veers into horror film territory. GONE GIRL is a grim but satisfying crowd-pleaser and if an Oscar-bait tale of murder, betrayal, and deception from David Fincher doesn’t get you out to the theaters, then you’re already dead.

4 of 5 Stars

Win Tickets To The Advance Screening Of GONE GIRL In St. Louis

From the tour de force thriller that became a bestselling must-read comes David Fincher’s screen version of GONE GIRL, a wild ride through our modern media culture and down into the deep, dark fault lines of an American marriage – in all its unreliable promises, inescapable deceits and pitch-black comedy.

The couple at the center of the story – former New York writer Nick Dunne and his formerly “cool girl” wife Amy, now trying to make ends meet in the mid-recession Midwest – have all the sinuous outer contours of contemporary marital bliss. But on the occasion of their 5th wedding anniversary, Amy goes missing — and those contours crack into a maze of fissures. Nick becomes the prime suspect, shrouded in a fog of suspicious behavior. Amy becomes the vaunted object of a media frenzy as the search for her, dead or alive, plays out before the eyes of a world thirsting for revelations.

Just as Nick and Amy personified the quintessential romantic match, Amy’s disappearance has all the markings of an emblematic domestic American crime. But her vanishing becomes a kind of hall of mirrors in which tantalizing and savage secrets lead to tantalizing and savage secrets.

The events that unfold are thick with shocks and complications, but the questions that remain are what cut, with razor-sharp precision, to the bone: Who is Nick? Who is Amy? Who are any of us in marriages — and a society — built on a precarious base of projected images and disguises?

Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Entertainment Present a David Fincher film starring Ben Affleck, GONE GIRL, with Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry. The screenplay is by Gillian Flynn based upon her novel.

WAMG has your passes for GONE GIRL. Enter for a chance to win passes (Good for 2) to the advance screening on October 2nd at 7:00PM in St. Louis.

Click here to enter: http://l.gofobo.us/VkHQnvmj

The winners will be drawn the morning of October 1st.

The film is rated R.

http://www.gonegirlmovie.com/

GONE GIRL opens on October 3

New Trailer For David Fincher’s GONE GIRL Movie Arrives

“I have nothing to hide.” “This man may kill me.” Just a sample of the chilling dialogue contained in the brand new trailer for director David Fincher’s upcoming film GONE GIRL. The original teaser was creepy, but this new preview is downright heart-pounding.

http://movietrailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/gonegirl/

Four “evidence” posters were unveiled over the holiday weekend.

Based on the global bestseller by Gillian Flynn, GONE GIRL unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage.

On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick’s portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble and he finds himself the chief suspect behind the shocking disappearance

Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

Starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit, Carrie Coon, Emily Ratajkowski and David Clennon, GONE GIRL opens in theaters October 3.

http://www.gonegirlmovie.com/

http://www.findamazingamy.com/

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https://twitter.com/gonegirlmovie