Curiosity Inc.

This movie. This fucking movie.

The Interview was supposed to be some stupid little Seth Rogen/James Franco movie, made to parody relations between two of the USA’s least favorite countries (namely North Korea and the USA). Then the Sony corporation got hacked and the company got turned inside out, with all its dirty little secrets made public for the world to see. Then the hackers responsible threatened more leaks and actual terrorist attacks if The Interview was released as planned.

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Whoo boy.

Everything about this movie at first glance screams “shallow awards bait.” It’s a film that takes place in Britain during WWII, and it’s a biopic about a genius who made a great leap in technology. It’s like Papa Weinstein (yes, this is a Weinstein Company release, so chalk up another Oscar cliche) saw the Best Picture campaign of 2010 between The King’s Speech and The Social Network and asked “Hey! What if we put them together?”

Oh, and it stars Benedict Cumberbatch as an eccentric and arrogant misfit genius with questionable sexuality. Because, you know, that’s never ever been done before.

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I had low hopes going into this one. The trailers did not fill me with confidence, and the rumors of excessive tampering behind the scenes had me worried. And of course, Disney’s live-action tentpole offerings (the Marvel films excluded) have given the strong impression that these guys wouldn’t know their asses from holes in the ground. In fact, I’d wager that the higher-ups at Disney are still licking their wounds from Tron: Legacy and the mishandled John Carter. Hell, I just saw the shallow and misguided Maleficent not eight months ago, and I’m supposed to take this Disney live-action fantasy seriously?!

Yet here we are with Into the Woods, an adaptation of the classic Stephen Sondheim stage musical, placed within this years Christmas Day Oscar-baiting dump. And I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised.

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Oh, Reese Witherspoon. Even after winning Best Actress for Walk the Line, there’s a superficial kind of rom-com sheen to her career that just won’t seem to shake off. Not that it’s entirely undeserved, of course: Some of her most notable hits include Sweet Home Alabama and the two Legally Blonde films, to say nothing of her naive virginal turn in Cruel Intentions. It’s easy to brush Witherspoon off as just another dime-a-dozen mediocrity with a pretty face, but that’s only if you haven’t seen how she crushed it in such dramatic turns as Mud. Which, sadly, nobody has. But of course, everybody heard about it when This Means War tanked.

Though bless her heart, that hasn’t stopped Witherspoon from persevering. The Good Lie and The Devil’s Knot may have gone nowhere, but she can still claim to have produced the very popular Gone Girl, and she has a Paul Thomas Anderson movie coming up later this year.

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Is it just me or is every single movie hitting theaters between now and New Year’s? Sure feels that way, especially here in Portland. I know that January is typically a dumping ground for the worst films because they get swept under so many awards favorites and festival darlings left over from the December before, but sweet baby Jesus! How bad could next January possibly be if we need so much awards bait playing so late in the year?!

Whatever the reason, it’s crunch time for cinephiles. And here at Movie Curiosities, we’re starting with an instant favorite among fans and critics alike that’s somehow taken its sweet-ass time getting here to Portland.

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I’ve heard scattered rumors about additional films in development, set in the realm of Middle Earth. Don’t believe a one of them. There are so many reasons why it will never come to pass within our lifetimes. Read the rest of this entry →