Usually a month where we tend to avoid the multiplex, the positive buzz on Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class and J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 and the inclusion of Blacklist 2008 favorite Bad Teacher means we might be shifting between smaller and larger venues this June.
This month (view our complete updated release schedule) we see several 2011 Sundance items in !Women Art Revolution, The Troll Hunter, The Art of Getting By (formerly Homework), Buck receiving their theatrical debuts, but at the forefront of this list we’d peg docu items Andrew Rossi’s Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times and Marshall Curry’s If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front as worthy items to seek out.
In valid foreign film options, IFC offers the abridged version of Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip (the mini-series was shrunk into a playable theatrical release format and first played at TIFF) and Aussie filmmaker, and 2010 Cannes Camera d’Or winner Michael Rowe will see his Leap Year (Año busiest) [06-24] get a small release via the Strand Releasing folks.
Duking it out this upcoming weekend we have Focus Features facing off against Weinstein Co. with their Toronto Film Festival pick-ups. Richard Ayoade’s Submarine and Mike Mills’ Beginners join Romanian film par excellence Aurora as three films that first preemed in 2010 and that will assuredly place in my year end Top 20 list.
#3. Submarine – Richard Ayoade
The Weinstein Co.: – June 3rd – Limited release
What the critic’s are saying?:
I share in Variety’s Peter Debruge’s view with how the title is a divergence of sorts while acknowledging its more obvious influence (Wes Anderson) “reminiscent of “Rushmore,” though not nearly so self-conscious, Wales-set “Submarine” rises above the genre’s tired, cookie-cutter competition, presenting familiar elements, such as preternaturally articulate teens preoccupied with virginity, through fresh eyes.” And while the break-out performance and strong narration is supported by Craig Roberts who takes on the 15-year-old anti-hero Oliver Tate with panache, The Hollywood Reporter’s John DeFore points to another strong supporting perf in Paddy Considine – “the mullet-wearing, custom-van-driving charlatan next door (Graham, played with gusto by Paddy Considine) who practices ninja moves and holds seminars offering self-improvement through aura analysis (or something like that). Graham turns out to have a complicated past with Oliver’s mom (Sally Hawkins), and the movie allows him enough vulnerability to dilute the character’s cartoonish tendencies.”
#2. Beginners – Mike Mills
Focus Features: – June 3rd – Wide release
What the critic’s are saying?:
Variety’s Peter Debruge’s assessment on how the film build s a rapport with the viewer is spot on stating, “Mike Mills knows this firsthand, having watched his father reinvent his sexual identity at an advanced age. Such observations fuel his deeply poignant and disarmingly personal “Beginners,” which blends autobiographical remembrances of that never-too-late transformation with a fictionalized account of attempting to start a meaningful relationship of his own at 38.” With Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor combining for a terrific, layered twosome of memorable screen characters, I’m with David Edelstein from NY Magazine who highlights one supporting character that might be short in stature, but offers some strong observations. “Take Arthur, the subtitled terrier that watches Oliver so attentively. The dog is a constant reminder of Oliver’s father; it reflects his own neediness back; and it prompts a lecture on the parts of personality beyond our control. Jack Russell terriers, Oliver tells the dog, were bred to hunt foxes, which is why Arthur feels unexplained stirrings. He adds that, on account of their adorableness, they show up in a lot of movies.“
#1. Aurora – Cristi Puiu
The Cinema Guild: – June 29th – New York release
What the critic’s are saying?:
I was especially perplexed by Cannes decision to bypass the Main Competition and have Cristi Puiu’s Aurora play in the Un Certain Regard section. Clocking in at over three hours, I was just as invested/absorbed in the opening moments as in the film’s post-climatic sequence, which IndieWIRE’s Eric Kohn describes as a “mannered dialogue sound[ing] fresh and strange.” This strategy comes together in “Aurora” with Viorel’s rambling confession, a finale that inspires laughter for the sheer matter-of-factness of Puiu’s deadpan performance. Jay Weissberg from Variety neatly describes what kind of prototype the film is: ““Aurora” doesn’t concern itself with the reasons behind the killings but rather takes a seemingly neutral eye to the decision behind the acts. The film is a record of a resolution and the deeds that come with that resolve, rather than its consequences or precedents. As such, it’s a cold movie (and a long one), but it’s undeniably the product of a master helmer.“
