"The film of tomorrow appears to me as even more personal than an individual and autobiographical novel, like a confession, or a diary. The young filmmakers will express themselves in the first person and will relate what has happened to them. It may be the story of their first love or their most recent; of their political awakening; the story of a trip, a sickness, their military service, their marriage, their last vacation...and it will be enjoyable because it will be true, and new...The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure. The film of tomorrow will resemble the person who made it, and the number of spectators will be proportional to the number of friends the director has. The film of tomorrow will be an act of love."

Photo Courtesy © Columbia Pictures

Stepbrothers

Directed by: Adam McKay

Written by: Adam McKay and Will Ferrell

Starring: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Mary Steenburgen, Richard Jenkins, Adam Scott and Kathryn Hahn.

The good news is that Stepbrothers was directed, produced and written by the same crew that brought us the hilarious Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The bad news is that unlike those two films, both of which had some semblance of an actual storyline (although this one technically does as well), Stepbrothers is just one long often-hilarious skit. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially when you have the comic team of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly at the center. The two of them are hysterical as the titular stepbrothers who loathe each other at first and then become best friends. All of the gags that are featured in the trailer (including the “let’s turn our beds into bunk beds!” bit) are still surprisingly funny in the film, as are the small cameos by Seth Rogen and (surprise-surprise) Horatio Sanz, but that still doesn’t carry enough weight to make this film anywhere near as good as the Apatow-helmed 40-Year-Old-Virgin, Knocked Up or even Superbad, which he just produced. All of these films had characters and a story that you cared about and related to on some level making them instantly memorable and re-watchable; Stepbrothers however is just funny.

Lily@picturesandframesmagazine.com

Photo Courtesy © Universal Pictures

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Directed by: Guillermo Del Toro

Written by: Guillermo Del Toro and Mike Mignola

Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, Anna Walton, Luke Goss, Seth MacFarlane and John Hurt.

It is no secret that I love Guillermo Del Toro—I love his passion, his intelligence, his dark sense of humor, and I especially love his ability to scare the shit out of me with horrific looking creatures. Having said all of this, the fact that I loved Hellboy II: The Golden Army so much more than the first Hellboy did come as a surprise considering how much I loved that film. From the very beginning of this film I was enthralled—by the way the story unfolded, by the growth of the characters, but most of all, by the incredible world that Del Toro envisions. The scene where Hellboy and the rest of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense gang go into the underground troll world reminded me of the Mos Eisley Cantina scene in Star Wars, except sooo much cooler and filled with even creepier and freakier creatures. Del Toro, with the help of “Hellboy” comic book creator Mike Mignola, tells the story of Hellboy with such care and attention to detail that it is truly awe-inspiring to watch. Add to the mix the perfect casting of Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor and, my personal favorite, Doug Jones as Abe Sapien (my heart flutters especially for him!) and you have yet another fantastic comic adaptation. Watching this film I couldn’t help but imagine the world that Del Toro will create for his upcoming Hobbit films. “Oh the places we’ll go…Oh the people we’ll see…”

Lily@picturesandframesmagazine.com

Photo Courtesy © Miramax Films

Brideshead Revisited

Directed by: Julian Jarrold

Written by: Jeremy Brock and Andrew Davies

Starring: Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Michael Gambon and Emma Thompson.

There is nothing like a great British costume drama to make you long for the days when Merchant and Ivory films where a semi-annual theatrical occurrence rather than just a novelty on PBS or BBC America. Directed by Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane and Kinky Boots) and written by the writers of such films as The Last King of Scotland, Charlotte Gray, Mrs. Brown, Bridget Jones and the beloved “Pride and Prejudice,” the film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited is exactly the kind of movie that would have been at home in the 80s and early 90s. These are the kinds of films that my father would rent frequently for us—where an English middle class bloke falls in love with a higher-class family only to find himself shamed—and I have to say that I have a soft spot for their melodrama still. (Yes, they are very melodramatic, but in a very enjoyable, delicious “lazy Sunday afternoon” sort of way.) What makes this particular adaptation so interesting is the high-caliber cast that it features. I never watched an episode of the original mini-series, which featured Jeremy Irons as Captain Charles Ryder, the middle class bloke, but Matthew Goode is certainly Irons equal in this adaptation. He is sexy and smart and smoldering, in equal parts, and his acting talent, apparent in films such as Matchpoint and The Lookout, is really on display here. Michael Gambon, Hayley Atwell and Ben Whishaw are also quite good in the film but the star of Brideshead is without a doubt this month’s Spotlight focus, Emma Thompson. Thompson is terrifying and, strangely enough, heartbreaking in every scene that she is in and it is her performance that made this good English costume drama truly great.

Lily@picturesandframesmagazine.com