Posts Marked Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

  • The Runaways Review by Tim Hayes

    July 1st, 2010

    Mr. Hayes is not only the ALMT publicist and lead editor,
    but also contributes film journalism and reviews to Critic’s Notebook and Cinemattraction.

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    The Runaways (2010) dir. Floria Sigismondi

    Studio: Apparition
    Screenwriter: Floria Sigismondi
    Starring: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon, Danielle Riley Keough, Scout Taylor-Compton, Stella Maeve, Tatum O’Neal
    Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
    MPAA Rating: R (for language, drug use and sexual content – all involving teens)
    Official Website: Runawaysmovie.com

    As if the dripping cherry on the poster wasn’t a big enough pointer, the first shot in “The Runaways” is of menstrual flow. Don’t be fooled. Yes, the hormone levels start off high and rise higher as the film charges through the formation of the famous band by young women going through all sorts of self-discovery. But it’s also a terrifically well-made fable of what happens when the right people meet in just the right places, a film that knows the difference between passion and sleaze.


    Visually the film is a knock-out. Director Floria Sigismondi has a track record of borderline-disturbing music videos for people like Marilyn Manson and Bjork, but in “The Runaways” she uses color as a weapon. Every shot is a riot of bold colorful textures and electric hues, but the style never comes close to pop-art or an ice-cream headache. Instead it energizes the film right off the screen, a visual echo of the sparks that start flying when The Runaways form.


    On top of that the acting is uniformly awesome. Kim Fowley, the moderately unhinged producer who put the band together, is played by the always brilliant Michael Shannon as a hyper-camp madman, fully able to deal with a musical crisis while banging a passing secretary or hanging upside-down from the ceiling. The fun Shannon is having can only be guessed at.


    Kristen Stewart gets top billing as Joan Jett and she’s a good physical match with the guitarist, especially when copying Jett’s head-down loping stride. But the film is based on singer Cherie Currie’s book, so it’s Dakota Fanning who gets to plot a character arc and unleash her wild-child.


    The results could burn the paint off a door frame. In perfect sync with her (female) director, Fanning cavorts in her underwear, revels in the character’s jail-bait sex appeal and flies straight off the rails, without once being demeaned by the camera or turned into a cliche. Fanning was 15 years old when this was filmed – bear that in mind when she climbs into fishnets. Bear it in mind again when the character’s mournful, fierce eyes are still with you the following day.

    July 1st,2010 Blogging, Film Reviews by Tim Hayes, Theatrical Thursdays, Video | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

  • Postcard from Edinburgh

    June 17th, 2010

    Mr. Hayes is not only the ALMT publicist and lead editor,
    but also contributes film journalism and reviews to Critic’s Notebook and Cinemattraction.

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    We interrupt your regularly scheduled film column for a quick party, since the entire ALM Talkies Theatrical Thursdays crew – hello there – has decamped to Scotland for the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Covering EIFF is a regular gig for me, and I can confidently make a few predictions.

    1. At some point I will lie on the grass in Princes Street Gardens, look up at the castle and ponder some miraculous movie that has left me moved, or provoked, or thrilled, and on a good day all three at once. It will probably not have involved things exploding, but you never know.


    2. At some point I will lie there and curse some miserable piece of dross that should never have seen the light of day.

    3. I will watch horror films first thing in the morning, possibly with a hangover.

    4. I will bump into celebrities. It happens here, it’s a very friendly festival. I was once in the middle of a conversation about a Danny Huston film, when Danny Huston walked over and shook my hand. He was very nice.

    5. I will embarrass myself in front of celebrities. This also happens. Two years ago Elisabeth Rohm, star of “Angel” and “Law & Order”, wore a dramatically shoulderless dress to the premiere of her film, proceeded to shiver through the screening, and probably didn’t need me stepping on her train on the way out. She was very nice too.

    6. I will remember that Bennets Bar with its stained glass windows and vast selection of whiskys is on my daily route back home. (See 3. above.) (And 2.) (And 5.)

    7. I will miss a lot of the World Cup.

    8. I will believe I have mastered the art of making written notes in the dark, but still need an Enigma machine to decode what I have scrawled on the page.

    9. I will catch up with Zach Clark, whose film “Modern Love Is Automatic” I loved last year and which then played at the Fetisch Film Festival alongside “Catwoman: Resolution”. His new film is called “Vacation!”. This is it. I have many questions.



    June 17th,2010 Blogging, Film Reviews by Tim Hayes, Theatrical Thursdays | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

  • Clash of the Titans review by Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    April 8th, 2010

    It’s Thursday, which means it’s…

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    Mr. Hayes is not only the ALMT publicist and lead editor,
    but also contributes film journalism and reviews to     Critic’s Notebook and Cinemattraction.

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    Clash of the Titans (2010) dir. Louis Leterrier

    Release Date: April 1, 2010
    Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
    Director: Louis Leterrier
    Screenwriter: Travis Beacham, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi
    Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, Jason Flemyng, Alexa Davalos, Izabella Miko, Nicholas Hoult, Pete Postlethwaite
    Genre: Action, Fantasy
    MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief sensuality)
    Official Website: Clash-of-the-Titans.com


    Films with gods and monsters are cool. They just are. Even the original “Clash of the Titans”, despite being adrift in the backwash from “Star Wars” and turning Mount Olympus into a discotheque, is a decent romp through the mythology with a couple of superb Ray Harryhausen monsters. So here’s the inevitable re-do.


    The plot is still about getting Perseus (Sam Worthington), Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) and the monstrous Kraken into one place for the show-down, but the details have been adjusted. The focus stays on Perseus and his multi-national gang of assistants rather than the gods, which raises questions: Why is Perseus the only man in the known world to shave? Since Sam Worthington keeps his accent, when did the ancient Greeks reach Western Australia? Why does sexy nymph Gemma Arterton deliver her entire role in dialogue pasted on via ADR, and so is never seen with her mouth open? Only the gods know.

    The big addition is Hades, wheeled into position as the bad guy in order to give Ralph Fiennes some mighty smiting to do. Fiennes treats the role as a big lark and does just fine, but the other gods are disposable bits of stunt casting. Someone in a big beard opens his mouth and turns out to be Danny Huston as Poseidon, but he never says anything else. Those of us who obsess just a little know that the casting of Aphrodite is a key issue, and apparently it was Agyness Deyn but she must have been hiding behind a cloud. As for Liam Neeson, playing Zeus with bored resignation and unleashing the Kraken as if choosing from the wine list, the man is already a god in my house and can do no wrong.


    Aimed squarely at 12-year olds, the new “Clash” is loud and unromantic and total nonsense. And if you’re in a forgiving mood, decent campy fun. It misses every chance to engage with the true impact of gods and mythology on screen, and runs a mile at the uncomfortable fact that those myths involved an awful lot of rape, but then it was made by people who worship nothing but money. The gods are still big, it’s just the pictures that got small.


    April 8th,2010 Film Reviews by Tim Hayes, Theatrical Thursdays, Uncategorized, Video | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo review by Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    April 1st, 2010

    It’s Thursday, which means it’s…

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    Mr. Hayes is not only the ALMT publicist and lead editor,
    but also contributes film journalism and reviews to     Critic’s Notebook and Cinemattraction.

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) dir. Niels Arden Oplev

    Release Date: March 19, 2010 (limited)
    Studio: Music Box Films
    Director: Niels Arden Oplev
    Screenwriter: Nikolaj Arcel, Rasmus Heisterberg
    Starring: Michael Nyqvis, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre, Peter Haber, Sven-Bertil Taube, Peter Andersson, Ingvar Hirdwall, Marika Lagercrantz, Björn Granath, Ewa Fröling
    Genre: Crime, Thriller
    MPAA Rating: Not Available
    Official Website: MusicBoxFilms.com

    An epic-length murder mystery that takes in sexual abuse, serial killing, Nazism and incest does not sound like a barrel of laughs, and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is indeed no picnic. Based on the famous bestseller by Stieg Larsson, it’s a locked-room detective story worthy of Agatha Christie, transplanted to the chilly Swedish countryside and goosed into life by one singular and incendiary character.

    The plot kicks off when disgraced journalist Mikael (Michael Nyqvist, looking so world-weary his clothes seem to have crumpled from the inside) is hired to look into a 40-year-old puzzle, the disappearance of young Harriet Vanger (Ewa Fršling) from an isolated island. Her uncle is convinced it was murder, and that the killer is someone in the family. Mikael uncovers endless skeletons in the Vanger closet, so things turn nasty pretty quick.

    But he’s not the singular character. Gifted computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) becomes involved, first at a distance, then as Mikael’s sort-of partner. Lisbeth is tattooed, pierced, sullen, slightly sociopathic, exhibiting Asperger’s and keeping the lid on some screwed-up secrets of her own. Putting her at the center of an old-fashioned mystery story is the film’s biggest and best jolt.

    It certainly puts Ms. Rapace front and center. Disappearing into the character and closing the shutters, she seems to be built entirely of sharp angles and no curves at all, and filmed so that her eyes are perfectly black. Once or twice, she moves as if her joints are installed wrongly – an outward sign of Lisbeth’s wonky wiring -and catches the hacker’s waspish defense mechanisms perfectly.

    The book’s Swedish title is “Men Who Hate Women,” and Mr. Larsson put his cards squarely on the table. Wickedness and misogyny lurk absolutely everywhere. Two scenes in particular more than earn the film its rating: first when Lisbeth is brutally abused by her guardian and then her graphic revenge – and both burn with the author’s helpless fury at human behavior. His fury is almost too much for the film, and director Niels Arden Oplev struggles to find an ending or control the final melodrama while there’s still anger left to be vented.

    But better a thriller with a temper than one that’s asleep. Two sequels with this cast are done already and an American remake looks inevitable, but it’ll struggle to match the cool efficiency or striking tone of the original. Try to meet Lisbeth before she turns into Carey Mulligan or similar.

    This review is also posted over at Critic’s Notebook.

    April 1st,2010 Blogging, Film Reviews by Tim Hayes, Theatrical Thursdays, Video | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments

  • Alice in Wonderland review by Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    March 18th, 2010

    It’s Thursday, which means it’s…

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    Mr. Hayes is not only the ALMT publicist and lead editor,
    but also contributes film journalism and reviews to     Critic’s Notebook and Cinemattraction.

    Tim Hayes on Theatrical Thursdays

    Alice in Wonderland (2010) dir. Tim Burton

    Release Date: March 5, 2010 (Disney Digital 3D and IMAX 3D)
    Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
    Director: Tim Burton
    Screenwriter: Linda Woolverton
    Starring: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Mia Wasikowska, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Christopher Lee, Paul Whitehouse, Barbara Windsor
    Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
    MPAA Rating: PG (for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar)
    Official Website: Disney.com


    The Alice books are hardly conventional kid-lit, so adding an extension in which an older Alice goes back to a ruined Wonderland isn’t a stupid idea – as long as you overlook that it’s been done before. And in other magic kingdoms. And that it drags Alice and the Hatter and the rest of them into the generic fudge of shouting and shooting and angst that passes for fantasy cinema right now. Apart from that, great idea.

    In Tim Burton’s new version, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) slips back underground at just the moment when the adult world is about to ensnare her, a very Burton-esque dive through life’s escape hatch. And Wonderland feels Burton-esque too, thanks to one of Danny Elfman’s more effective musical themes and a sequence of wonderfully goofy characters. As soon as you’re used to Helena Bonham Carter’s petulant big-headed Red Queen, up pops Anne Hathaway swanning around in a stupor as the White Queen and gently mocking her own old roles.

    But the plot has the usual identity crisis, a jigsaw of Narnia animals and Lord of the Rings armies and the Jabberwocky as a weapon of mass destruction, and Alice puts away childish things to borrow Joan of Arc’s armor. Very fetching she looks too, but Wasikowska is achingly pretty and would look fetching in anything. Also grown up for the worse is the Mad Hatter, who gets motivation and a backstory to justify Johnny Depp’s energetic pantomime turn, and presumably the actor’s salary too.

    “Alice” is a pretty clear summary of the bind Tim Burton finds himself in, locked into making ever thinner films for the critics to jump on. But take it on its own merits and it’s an amusing demonstration of Burton’s eye for vibrant color, keeps the kids occupied and adds up to exactly nothing. Of course Burton should be doing better. So should Depp: The Hatter does a body-popping dance to a tune that sounds like it was remixed by my grandfather. Once seen, this cannot be un-seen.

    March 18th,2010 Blogging, Film Reviews by Tim Hayes, Theatrical Thursdays, Video | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments
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