Tune In or Tune Out: House of Cards (Netflix)

House of Cards (Netflix)

Created by: Beau Willimon (Ides of March)

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, and Kate Mara

Do you have Netflix? If the answer is no, I am going to advise that within the next couple of months that you should invest in the watch instant feature.  Not only has Netflix been doing a good job getting more movies, and television series, but now they have their own television series, and its good!

House of Cards centers around the inner workings of politics in Washington DC and the election of a new President.  While the show focuses on many different political players in DC the show focuses House Majority Whip Francis Underwood played brilliantly by Kevin Spacey.  The shows other main player is a young upstart reporter Zoe barnes played incredible vitality by Kate Mara.  While Spacey is a house hold name as a two time Oscar winner Mara is a bit more unknown but her performance in the first American Horror Story series was brilliant.  Francis's wife Claire Underwood played by Robin Wright is another focal point of the show, and while her story was a bit dull the character is not, and Wright has this dark energy which she exudes in a commanding supporting role.

Together these power players along with the rest of the cast work together to create a show which centers on the intrigue within DC.  Francis was groomed to be the President elects Secretary of State but was passed over by the administration.  Francis teams up with Zoe, his wife, staffers, and other politicians to manipulate a situation that will enact a form of revenge that is almost Shakespearean.

Series creator Beau Willimon who wrote the electrifying film Ides of March teams up with genius director David Fincher for the first episode of this new series.  Willimon's script is excellent; he knows how to create connecting points, which will help develop characters while moving the show in an interesting direction. Fincher's direction is incredible, the man can almost do no wrong.  In this series he works well with the actors to create the edge of seat intensity. One of my favorite aspect of the script, and direction is the Spacey breaks the fourth wall talking to viewer.  Characters rarely break the fourth because it feels contrived or forced but within the context of this show, there is something devilishly fun about being led down the path with Francis.

For their first major television series Netflix has gambled a lot on this series, and it's paid off.  While the show may not be for everyone, mainly if you are not intrigued by politics, but the characters are fantastic, the writing is sharp, and the direction flawless.  Even only after one episode I am intrigued and will going back to finish all thirteen, which are available.  This is a brilliant show, and strategy.  I applaud the tenacity of Netflix, and the people involved with this show.

Verdict: Tune In!!

The Opening says it all in the World of David Fincher

One of the most important parts of the film experience is the title sequence. The website The Art of the Title recently highlighted the great work of David Fincher.  Fincher has created incredible opening sequences in the modern film world that with all of his films allowing his films to to have an incredible flow that sets spark to wonderful story telling.

Fincher started with one of the boldest openings ever with Alien 3.  As the names of the cast and crew entered the screen, Fincher helped create a sequence that showed the deaths of the characters from Aliens, a bold, but interesting move.  The opening sequence for this film is haunting, and while fans often chastise this third film in the series, the opening sequence leaves your heart racing as you watch the aliens destroy the characters you have grown to love.  In interviews Fincher has stated that the cast from Aliens was longer going to be used so Fincher helped create an opening that explained what happened, and he did in bold way!

3 years later Fincher pushed the envelope even further with opening title sequence with the film Se7en.  When I was a young 11 year old budding film buff I remember sneaking to watch Se7en on television.  I was not able to see it in the movies because my parents would not take me, but I heard great things about the movie.  I had never seen an opening sequence quite like this film, and remember being blown away at how cool it was.  Fincher’s creativity combined with Howard Shore’s score creates a haunting opening sequence filled tension that permeates throughout this film.  This opening sequence opened my eyes to another world, and challenged my past perspective on film itself.

Fincher’s next brilliant masterpiece of an opening (skipping The Game) was the 199 film Fight Club.  Fincher says it best in his interview with art of the title “With Fight Club, the whole thing could have started with the sound of a gun being cocked, opening on Edward Norton — which is how it began in all the preview screenings — but I had this idea to begin with the electrical impulse of information between two synapses to cue the fear or panic receptors in Edward Norton’s character’s brain. Then we literally pull back, changing in scale all the way back, and we pull out through his forehead.”  There is an art to the opening sequence, and Fincher has always been willing to spend money, and take risks as he creates the feel for his films.  This opening sequence defines the complexity within the film, and emotional gravity, something we should never talk about in the first place, because you know the rule. 

Fincher has continued to define his stories in their opening sequence with the film The Social Network.  In The Social Network he uses the films first scene to set up this isolationist tone, combined with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score.  As Mark Zuckerberg strolls through Cambridge, and Harvard’s campus Jesse Eisenberg rushes to his computer and the birth of social media, all after being dumped.

These are only four examples, but proof that this man is an incredible storyteller, and uses the most finite details to create the pulse for his films.  Fincher has transformed modern film making, and is one of the foremost directors working today; he celebrates film while innovating.  This article listed below is full interview with him, and proof that this man’s view of the opening title sequence has impacted those working today!

http:// www.artofthetitle.com/feature/david-fincher-a-film-title-retrospective/

The Director's Guild Narrows Things Down a Little Bit

Today the Director's Guild of America (DGA) announced their five nominees, and their was one shock, David Fincher for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was nominated in every one of the major guild awards, the PGA, WGA, and the DGA.  What does this mean?  Tattoo is on solid ground and will most likely be one of the 5-9 Best Picture nominee.  Fincher is a well respected director, but I did not see this nomination coming.  I thought we would see Tate Taylor for The Help, Steven Spielberg for War Horse or Bennett Miller for Moneyball before Fincher made this list.

Now as an Oscar forecaster I can safely predict The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has a much better shot at (if not locked down) at being a Best Picture nominee.  I also think think this means we will see Rooney Mara's name announced as a nominee for Best Actress. The biggest problem with predicting the Best Picture category is that no one knows the number of nominees in the Best Picture category so predicted the actual nominees is going to be more difficult.  The Help will  still score a Best Picture nomination, but will probably not get a director nomination (as previously thought).  I think Moneyball is in the same category as The Help, a Best Picture nomination without a Director nomination.  I think War Horse could be a causality here, while Spielberg garnered a DGA nomination for Munich, but not for this and with this  films diminishing box office, and the fact that no one is pushing it as their favorite film proves to be a huge barrier for this film.

I am saddened that brilliant directors like Terrence Malick-The Tree of Life, and Nicolas Winding Refn-Drive are being ignored.  These two men created two brilliant films, and their direction is the best of the year.  The Director's branch of the Academy does not always agree with these five nominees.  Last year Christopher Nolan-Inception was nominated for the DGA but the Coen Brothers earned a nomination in his place at the Oscars for True Grit (huge mistake). 2009 the nominees matched up exactly.  In 2008 Christopher Nolan received a DGA nomination for The Dark Knight, and Stephen Daldry received his spot as an Oscar nominee for The Reader (another big mistake).  In 2007 the DGA picked Sean Penn for Into the Wild as a nominee while the Academy replace him with Jason Reitman for Juno.  I would have picked Penn, but Juno was a well liked film.  In 2006 the DGA and the Academy disagreed on two nominations.  The DGA nominated Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Ferris for Little Miss Sunshine and Bill Condon for Dreamgirls.  The Academy Awards nominated Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima and Paul Greengrass for United 93. Over the last few years the DGA and Academy have only completely agreed one year, and from 2000-2010 the DGA and Academy have only lined up three times (2002, 2005, and 2009).

So who will stay and who will be replaced (if anyone)?  I think Fincher is the most vulnerable, but at this moment it is hard to predict that any of these five men listed below will not get a nomination.  The next question is who would be the replacement nominee, will the Academy play it safe with Miller, Spielberg, or Taylor or will they take a risk and go with Malick or Refn.  When replacing someone in a group like this this the Academy will typically go with Malick or Refn.  The Academy has typically only messed up when replacing Christopher Nolan (they sure hate him for some reason.  At the moment I think Malick will replace Fincher, but that is not a set in stone prediction.

Here are the nominees:

WOODY ALLEN
Midnight in Paris
(Sony Pictures Classics)

DAVID FINCHER
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
(Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures)

MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS
The Artist
(The Weinstein Company)

ALEXANDER PAYNE
The Descendants
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)

MARTIN SCORSESE
Hugo
(Paramount Pictures)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an Edgy Tale with Rooney Mara stealing the film

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (3 1/2 out 5 Stars)

Directed by David Fincher (The Social Network, Fight Club, Se7en)

Written by Steve Zallian (Moneyball, Gangs of New York, Schindler's List)

Starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, and Christopher Plummer

I can hear the groans already, another book being made into a movie. Wait, what?  Stieg Larson's book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was already made into a movie?  There was a Sweedish version?  I can hear even more groans from people stating "Hollywood is going to take another foreign film and remake it for American audiences."  This is a double whammy that could have proved disastrous.  I think the opposite happened.  While I did not love the book, and the Swedish film was solid, but this may be the best version of this story.

The film starts with Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) walking out of court after he loses a libelist case against a major business tycoon.  Blomkvist works for an independent magazine called Millennium; he tells his business partner and love Erika Berge (Robin Wright) he is going to be stepping away from the magazine.  While this is happening Blomkvist is being investigated by a third party named Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) because Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) wants him to help him solve a murder mystery.  Blomkvest takes the the case and finds himself surrounded by despicable people on a dark and twisted path to find a killer of women.

Fincher was the right man to tackle this film.  I can think of no other director who could handle the subject matter better; he knows how to construct films centered around dark subject matters.  Fincher has found found musical soul mates in Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.  Reznor and Ross composed one of the best original scores for The Social Network and their score creates an eerie wonderful composition for this film.  The score sets the mood perfectly for this film and is one of the best elements of this film.  Fincher knows how to construct stories, and enjoyed the work he did here.

The interesting part of this film was knowing the book and the differences from the book to film.  The subject matter of this book is deft, there are 465 pages worth of material.  Most adaptations need to trim the fat, and change things for the screen.  This film version did both.  There are moments in the film where I was glad they cut things, or changed things up a bit.  The biggest change is the ending.  Many fans complain when the ending of a book is changed, it works here, but I also think it works because it makes things less complicated.  Zallian's screenplay while not amazing makes the material sharper and concise for the silver screen.  In the book Lisbeth is a major character, but the main focus seems to be Mikael.  This film uses one of the darkest heroines well, and integrates her story into the film seamlessly.

Lisbeth's portrayer Rooney Mara is fantastic in this role; she plays a girl with no emotions perfectly.  As Lisbeth is still a ward of the state at 24 she has been seen as a menace, but she refuses to be a victim to societal norms.  Mara plays this role with great ease and conviction as though it comes natural to her; she has not had many starring roles, but I would imagine her strong performance in this film will catapult her into stardom.

This dark tale is not fun holiday material it is a solid piece of work. This film proves that even with a second coming there can be a worthwhile vantage point for new audiences.  While there are moments when this film feels a bit impersonal, where the secondary characters seem out of the loop the the Vanger family whom this film is somewhat about.  People will also question the connection that builds between Lisbeth and Mikhael, how does it form, where does it come from?  There are some holes that screenplay does not cover up.  These flaws in screenplay come because adapting this sometimes off putting book into something better is a chore.  I give the team behind this film props for making me like a film about a book I did not care for.