There are few things in life I enjoy so much as Ben Affleck’s pop-directorial style paired with Dennis Lehane’s über bleak, Boston-set molestation revenge stories. Lehane is grittiah than vintage Welkah, Gawd rest his fackin traiterous soul. In fact, the first time I typed an exaggerated Bostonian accent, I think it was in reference to a Lehane movie. Last time Ben Affleck handled a Lehane story was his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, a gritty fackin modern nwah stawry if ever I sawr one. But according to Deadline, Casey’s brother is currently in talks to direct an adaptation of Lehane’s Live By Night. This one’s set during prohibition, but I’m pretty sure there was molestation and the Sawx back then too, so it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

Affleck is in talks at the studio to make Live By Night the next film he will write-direct-produce and star in. The project is based on the new novel by Dennis Lehane that was just published by William Morrow.

Live By Night uses some of the characters from Lehane’s sprawling period novel The Given Day and brings them into Prohibition. The focus is Joe Coughlin, the black-sheep son of a police captain who gets involved in escalating levels of organized crime.

So it doesn’t overtly seem to involve anyone taking revenge on their molestors, but it could be there in the subtext. I’d like to think it is. More importantly, it didn’t stop Burnsy, Chareth, and I from imagining what are sure to be of the pivotal scenes:

Read the rest of this entry »

Now that Iran’s leaders have aired their grievances with the way their people were portrayed in the 2013 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Argo, it is time for more countries that have been slighted to step forward and shame director Ben Affleck for his typical American ways. Specifically, people in New Zealand are pissed off because of one little line that makes them sound like a bunch of dicks who turn their lights off on Halloween.

“The six of them went out a back exit. Brits turned them away. Kiwis turned them away. Canadians took them in.”

Four words that pass so quickly on a giant screen, but have already detonated with more impact in the hearts of New Zealanders than 1,000 atomic bombs. Now, the country’s leaders are fighting back against Hollywood’s propaganda once again, but this time it isn’t about Peter Jackson stealing $67 million from taxpayers. No sirs, this is about pride.

Read the rest of this entry »

You have no idea how happy I am to break Film’s Drunk “war crimes tag” cherry. As Vince previously mentioned, Iran is none too pleased with Ben Affleck’s Best Picture-winning Argo (big Les Misérables fans, those guys), which “makes the people of Iran look like they have no self-determination, and indisputably support violence.” I actually thought they came across quite well, especially in the scene where that Dire Straits song plays…oh, wait, no, that was the white people. Iranians = monsters, so says Argo, but Iran’s planning their revenge, by framing Ben Affleck as a perpetrator of war crimes for the U.S. whose Argo is nothing more than a covert operation disguised as a movie. Hm, sounds familiar.

Read the rest of this entry »

As spotted by an eagle-eyed Twitter user, here’s David O. Russell reacting hilariously to his Silver Linings Playbook actress Jennifer Lawrence losing her BAFTA Best Actress bid to Emmanuelle Riva in Amour. That’s the thing about David O. Russell, he might scream and call you a c*nt on set, but when push comes to shove, he’s got your back. I heard he once tried to knife fight a biker who pinched Amy Adams’ ass outside a bowling alley once. Heart of a lion, that guy. He also directed a movie that feels like a collection of bad indie rom-com tropes and was somehow still good. Silver Linings Playbook is like a damned magic trick.

You can see the full list of BAFTA winners and nominees below. No real surprises, other than Zero Dark Thirty getting shut out. Argo picked up another best picture win on the way to the Oscar every assumes it’s going to get. Ben Affleck won best director, which is fair, because why would a guy who directed the best picture not be the best director? That makes no sense.

I also enjoy that a movie about French poverty called “The Wretched” won an award for best hair and make-up. That really says it all. Derelicte is real, you guys.

–

BEST FILM
X – “Argo”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“Les Misérables”
“Zero Dark Thirty”

Read the rest of this entry »

This is… the story of a girl… who cried a river and drowned the whole world…

Director’s Guild president Taylor Hackford today announced the five nominees for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2012, which included Steven Spielberg and Les Misérables director Tom Hooper, but not Paul Thomas Anderson, Rian Johnson, Steven Soderbergh, or Quentin Tarantino. If you wonder why there are so many bad movies, that a voting majority of directors have boring, crappy taste may have something to do with it.

Argo – Ben Affleck

Zero Dark Thirty – Kathryn Bigelow

Les Misérables -Tom Hooper

Life of Pi – Ang Lee

Lincoln – Steven Spielberg [full press release]

This is Spielberg’s 11th DGA nomination, a record. I don’t know what’s worse, the DGA not recognizing The Master, Django Unchained, or Looper (all of which feature in my top five of the year), or that they honored Les Mis with anything but a Smash Mouth parody. Especially since the Les Mis haters were so vocal:

Read the rest of this entry »