Check out this sweet interview
Nadja Swarovski and Rodarte’s Kate and Laura Mulleavy reveal more of the behind the scenes magic in a series of interviews where they talk about the design inspiration and the seamless relationship between the costumes and the film.
via adorn-london
By Liz Parker, Yes/No Films
From its trailer, “Unknown” looks like it will be a fast-paced film about a man whose identity has been stolen. Instead, it’s more of a “thinking”-type film, but still delivers the car chases and interesting plot that those who saw the trailer are probably looking forward to.
Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson, “The Next Three Days”) is going to a convention in Berlin with his wife, Liz (January Jones, TV’s “Mad Men”), but when they arrive at their hotel in Germany, he realizes he has left his briefcase at the airport. He immediately hops into a cab, driven by Gina (Diane Kruger, “Inglourious Basterds”), in an attempt to retrace his steps and return to the airport, but the cab crashes and he almost dies. Gina saves him but then takes off, as she’s an illegal, and he ends up in the hospital for about four days, and in a coma for some of those. When he awakes, his first thought is of his wife, and how scared she must be being by herself in a foreign city; when he returns back to their hotel, however, and sees her at one of the conference’s events, she doesn’t recognize him, and even introduces him to her husband, Dr. Martin Harris (Aidan Quinn, “Flipped”). Martin knows something is up, but he’s not sure what, and so he must retrace his tracks back to where it all started: the car accident.
The film had a good supporting cast that added to the performances of its main stars, such as Frank Langella (“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”) as a university colleague of Martin’s, and Bruno Ganz (“The Reader”) as a detective of sorts whom Martin approaches for help, after having been referred to him. Neeson, January Jones, and Kruger all do very well in this film too, and it was nice to see Neeson in a good action role again.
Yes, see this movie. Although it was not what I was expecting it to be, it still managed to maintain my attention throughout its 109 minute runtime, and that is really all I can ask for out of a film. I was very interested in learning why someone would want to impersonate Neeson’s character, as well, and at the end (and a little before then, actually) all is revealed.
“Unknown” will be in theaters on February 18th.
by Liz Park Yes/No Films
I was able to see “Cedar Rapids” at its Sundance USA premiere at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor on January 28. From its trailer, it looked like it would be reminiscent of “The Hangover,” which also starred Ed Helms, but I was worried that it may have put all its funny moments in the trailer, like some comedies are apt to do. Luckily, I was proved completely wrong, and the movie ended up being hilarious. Director Miguel Arteta was at the theater as well, and he did a Q&A session after the film, as well as a “Meet the Press” type session that I was also able to attend.
In “Cedar Rapids,” Tim Lippe (Ed Helms, TV’s “The Office”) works for a small insurance agency in a town in Wisconsin. When his coworker suddenly dies, he has the chance to go to the big insurance convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and his goal is to win the prestigious “Two Diamonds Award” that his coworker had won for the agency four years running. He has a list of “good people” to associate with, including his roommate, Ronald (Isaih Whitlock Jr., TV’s “Rubicon”), and a list of people to stay away from – well, a list with one name on it, anyway, that of the bawdy Dean Ziegler (John C. Reilly, “Terri”). While at the conference, he also meets Joan (Anne Heche, TV’s “Hung”), and Tim and his new friends end up having more shenanigans go down than he was probably ever expecting to happen in Cedar Rapids.
The movie was bizarre and hilarious – it reminded me of a mix of “The Hangover” and “The Forty Year Old Virgin.” The other A-lister in the movie, Sigourney Weaver (“You Again”), was not in the film as much as I thought she’d be (she played Tim’s girlfriend, who is a significant 20+ years older than him and was his teacher when he was 12 years old), but the other three A-listers (O’Reilly, Helms, and Whitlock) were featured prominently. Heche does a great job as well, as a married woman with two children, who insists that “what happens in Cedar Rapids stays in Cedar Rapids” and that this was her vacation of sorts from “real life.” John C. Reilly absolutely steals the show, and he is the funniest I have ever seen him here. The director, Miguel Arteta, said that Reilly likes to improvise a lot, so perhaps this contributed to the movie’s hilarity; speaking of which, definitely stay while the credits roll after this movie, because there are two or three more scenes in which he delivers again and again. Ed Helms was good in his role, especially at playing the naive Tim, but it is Reilly, in my opinion, that plays the funniest character.
Yes, see this movie. If I can see it again before it comes out, I probably will. The audience was laughing hysterically throughout most of the movie, and it would be interesting to see if it is received as well by a Detroit-area audience (rather than Ann Arbor-area). Whenever I thought the movie couldn’t get any weirder or crazier, it outdid itself again and again, and it is this craziness that had the audience in stitches throughout the entire film.
“Cedar Rapids” will have a limited release on February 11, and will be released in the Detroit area on February 18.
Video conferencing is not all business, now you can impress (your boss?) by being a giant. Thanks to japanese architect Ryuji Nakamura, all you have to do is pop his paper house over your webcam. This awesome idea is from his Midget & Giant project for DESIGNEAST 01. Neat.
photos by Ryuji Nakamura
via Laughing squid via Super Punch
“Gnomeo, Gnomeo, wherefore art thou Gnomeo?” is not exactly what William Shakespeare wrote in his classic play “Romeo and Juliet,” but in “Gnomeo and Juliet,” the play is adapted by using garden gnomes as the main characters. What might have been a fun and unique movie, however, turns out to only be lackluster, and the funniest parts are given away in the trailer.
Gnomeo (voiced by James McAvoy, “The Last Station”) is a Blue, and knows never to interact with the Reds, his enemies. When he meets Juliet (voiced by Emily Blunt, “Gulliver’s Travels”), however, he can’t help but fall in love with her. These two gnomes know that their love can never exist in the “real world,” but they try to make a go of it regardless. Lord Redbrick (voiced by Michael Caine, “Inception”), Juliet’s father, keeps a close eye on her, but she is still able to escape and meet Gnomeo in secret. When one of the Blues “kills” Tybalt (voiced by Jason Statham, “The Mechanic”) by smashing him, however, all hell breaks loose, and a full-blown war between the Reds and Blues ensues. Gnomeo and Juliet must then choose if they want to fight against each other, or try to stop the war altogether.
This film wasn’t as funny as I was expecting. My favorite characters ended up being the few non-gnomes that were in the film – Nanette (voiced by Ashley Jensen, TV’s “Accidentally on Purpose”), a garden frog who is Juliet’s best friend; Bill Shakespeare (voiced by Patrick Stewart, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”), in bust form, who has a heart-to-heart with Gnomeo one day; and these little rabbits that were actually kind of evil, who are constantly by Lady Bluebury’s (Gnomeo’s mother’s) side (voiced by Maggie Smith, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”). The gnomes were cute, and there are a ton of A-listers who voice them (I still haven’t mentioned Ozzy Osbourne, Dolly Parton, and others), but the story just didn’t hold up.
Maybe see this movie. Definitely skip the 3D; for most of the film, I forgot I was even wearing 3D glasses. “Gnomeo and Juliet” is that rare children’s movie that contains a ton of references that only adults will get, but not enough laughs to keep the adults or children entertained throughout. Other than “Yogi Bear,” however, this is one of the only children’s films that will be in theaters next week, and so if you must drag your children to a movie, and they are easily entertained, they may like “Gnomeo and Juliet.” This reviewer, however, was not impressed, although she is definitely going to hide her lawnmower, as apparently garden gnomes like to race them in their spare time.
“Gnomeo and Juliet” will be in theaters on February 11th.
via Yes/No Films
Let your inner child play with this super cute submarine umbrella from 25togo Design.
Steel and nylon construction, with special handle bar and that awesome window that lets you peek out. check out all the cute details.
on sale for $580 New Taiwan dollars, so like 20 bucks us, if you like it get it here.
There are many things that you should (or should not?) do when you are peeing, but now you can add gaming. Using this toilet game prototype you can now games and pee.
via Oddity Central have noted via lostateminor
Being a photographer is about seeing, but that doesn’t mean using your eye. Check out Pete Eckertm a totally blind person and a photographer, presented by Artists Wanted.
| Artists Wanted | In Focus : Pete Eckert (Lo-Speed) from Artists Wanted on Vimeo.
Words by Liz Parker, Yes/No Films
Pictures by Elyssa Pearlstein, A2-4U (except where noted)
The citizens of Ann Arbor were treated to not one, but two Sundance films this past weekend, January 27 and 28. Out of the nine cities around the country selected to host a Sundance film, Ann Arbor was the only city selected to host two, and this was because the second film, “Cedar Rapids,” was filmed on-location in Ann Arbor. The other cities selected to host films, all on January 27, were Brookline, MA; Brooklyn, NY; San Francisco; Seattle; Chicago; Los Angeles; Madison, WI; and Nashville, and different films were shown at each location. “Cedar Rapids” was shown in Seattle on the 27th and then the director, Miguel Arteta, who had previously directed “Youth in Revolt” in Ann Arbor, flew to Michigan for the premiere.
“Win Win” was shown the night of the 27th at the Michigan Theater to a packed audience. The movie tells the story about Mike Flaherty, a lawyer who also doubles as a high school wrestling coach, and the lead role is played by Paul Giamatti. Giamatti and director Tom McCarthy were originally scheduled to do a Q&A, but neither was able to make it. “You know, winning a Golden Globe really messes with your schedule …” Russ Collins, the Executive Director of the Michigan Theater, joked, referring to Giamatti’s recent Golden Globe win for Best Actor for his role in the movie “Barney’s Version.” However, one of the movie’s producers, Mary Jane Skalski, who is a U of M grad and Michigan native, was in attendance.
“The role of the producer involves looking for the money, making sure that everything gets there on the day, that people have a place to eat, etcetera …” Skalski said, when asked what her role entails.
On the movie, which involves Giamatti as wrestling coach and a lawyer, she said that she “knew nothing about wrestling. Tom said ‘we really need a wrestler,’ because someone’s not going to be able to fake that. It will be easier to teach a wrestler how to act than to teach an actor how to wrestle.”
All of the kids in the movie are wrestlers, and Alex Shaffer, who plays the lead character, a boy that Giamatti and his wife take in, actually “became the New Jersey state wrestling champ at 119 pounds AND got the role in the movie, all in the same week,” said Skalski.
Paul Giamatti was the first choice for the lead role, as both he and Tom McCarthy attended Yale together for grad school, and they were already friends and wanted to make a movie together.
“Tom is really collaborative and pretty intimate. He’s rehearsing before we even start shooting. I kind of compare him to a tailor – he fine-tunes things,” Skalski said.
The second night of Sundance USA was just as packed as the first, and the feature film “Cedar Rapids” was shown to a crowd of more than 1,600 people (Michigan Theater’s capacity is 1,700). “Cedar Rapids” follows a naïve insurance salesman as he’s sent to the “big city” from his small hometown in Wisconsin to go to an insurance conference, and it is about the people he meets there and the lessons he later learns. Miguel Arteta, the director, was on hand for the event, and he did a Q&A session after the film as well as a “meet the press” event beforehand, which I was able to attend.
Everyone’s biggest question, of course, was why Arteta chose to film in Ann Arbor.
photo by Liz
“Iowa’s incentive program went belly-up. We needed a hotel with a pool in the middle of it and it turns out that Michigan has the most number of these,” he said. “This is my 2nd film shot in Ann Arbor, and I love it here.”
The cast and crew prepped for eight weeks in Iowa and then only four in Michigan. The film was screened in Park City, Utah, as part of the official Sundance program recently as well.
“In Park City, we were very nervous, since we had never screened in front of a large audience. We are very much indebted to Sundance,” Arteta explained. “The film screened in Seattle last night as well, and they liked it very much, I think.”
At the Q&A after the movie, Arteta thanked the audience, saying that “there are 1,700 people here tonight and this is the largest audience at one time that I will ever have. You are the fourth audience in the country to see the movie.”
Many of the Michigan-based extras who were in the movie were at the Michigan Theater, and they stood up to applause when Arteta asked them to. He joked, “I loved all the Michigan extras. I didn’t know at times if we were at a convention or making a movie – it was confusing!”
Russ Collins added that he “can tell [you] that the buzz at Sundance for the movie was very high – I was walking around hearing people talk about [Cedar Rapids].”
Arteta later talked about three of the main characters, played by John C. Reilly, Ed Helms, and Isiah Whitlock. He said that Reilly is a very big improviser, which made the movie fun, and that Arteta “loves that the movie is about such an innocent character.” (referring to Ed Helms’s role)
“Ed reminds me of Jack Lemmon – he’s very sweet, very funny. Him and John C. Reilly are very funny together,” he said.
As for the two movies themselves, I can’t divulge specifics, but I enjoyed both of them very much, in different ways. “Cedar Rapids” is probably one of the most bizarre movies I’ve seen lately, but in a good way – it reminded me of a combination of “The Hangover,” which Helms was also in, and “The Forty Year Old Virgin” – and “Win Win” was a lot funnier that I thought it would be. If you like comedies, I would recommend seeing both of these films when they are released in theaters.
“Win Win” will be out in theaters in mid-March, and “Cedar Rapids” will be out in limited release on February 11th and in the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas in late February or early March.
Words by Liz Parker, Yes/No Films
Pictures by Elyssa Pearlstein, A2-4U (except where noted)
Sundance USA page: http://www.sundance.org/festival/film-events/sundance-usa/
