Reel News...First Trailer for Spielberg's Lincoln [2012]

This season's most talked about movie that's not titled The Master, film fanatics and historical junkies alike recently got their first glimpse into the upcoming movie Lincoln.  Spielberg's film becomes the second one this year to center on our 16th President.  Unfortunately in the upcoming biopic,  President Lincoln will not be wielding an axe and hunting down vampires.  On the plus side however, he will be portrayed by two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis, so that should help fill the vampire void a bit.  The movie also boasts a number of other top notch actors like Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, Sally Field and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, so we should have no problems with the acting here.  And with some folks already wanting to hand Lewis his Academy Award after this trailer, it seems no surprise that all the focus is on him, as it always is with any DDL performance.

But this interest should not be all about the Oscars.  I'll admit due to my busy schedule this summer I could not find time to make it to go see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and as a result this trailer marks the first time I have ever seen Honest Abe portrayed cinematically.  Heck, it will be the first time I ever seen the guy move.  Like any other historical figure, our memory is served best by how ever many portraits and paintings they were willing to sit through.  Tall and stiff, slightly angled one way, I could hardly imagine George Washington doing anything other than standing that way.  To me, he has not other expression.  Lincoln is the same way, though the advent of photography during the mid-1800s offers him a bit more variety.

Watching the trailer, it seemed almost as if Spielberg knew that notion of mine and toyed with the idea.  The first time we see Lincoln it is from behind- along with the second and third times as well.  Like I have always imagined, he just sits there pondering as Congressman yell into his ears telling him how to end the war.  Almost a minute goes by before he says anything at all.  Finally when he gets the chance, his words are riveting, nothing short of fascinating- just as I would try to imagine.  Though I hate starting Oscar rumors before Thanksgiving at the very earliest, Lewis certainly shines in the brief glance we're given so I will agree for now that a third statue is not entirely out of the question.  The nomination is a gimme.

And I can see Lincoln racking up a few more nominations and acclaim outside of Lewis' acting.  Even last year's War Horse, a good not great Spielberg movie, grabbed six nominations and plenty of love from the critics.  I would think Lincoln has a stronger force behind it, but only time will tell. 

                       

Reel News...New Trailers/Teasers for "The Master," "The Great Gatsby" & "Anchorman Two"

      Big news today from three huge and highly anticipated upcoming movies.  Trailers and teasers have been released for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of The Great Gatsby and of course, Anchorman Two.  Commentary  and videos for each project follow below.

The Master

To be honest, no one saw There Will Be Blood coming and no one was quite ready for what it held.  Sure, Paul Thomas Anderson has been steadily establishing himself as one of the few Hollywood auteurs with pictures like Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love, but There Will Be Blood seemed something beyond all these.  Many people call it a masterpiece.  Others, actually insisted the movie's ending tainted its own opportunity at such a title.  But if nothing else, everyone can agree Daniel Day-Lewis gave the performance of a lifetime, one that is surely up there with greatest ever.  For those who were left spellbound by Daniel Plainview & Co. (myself included), the five year hiatus of Paul Thomas Anderson has not been a favorable one.  Nonetheless, vague details about his follow up project, "something about a returning soldier and a new cult-like religion" had been out there for years and while nothing was ever confirmed, the untitled, upcoming project always carried the name The Master.

Well all that can be confirmed as The Master now has an official teaser trailer over at YouTube.  After producing an excellent score for There Will Be Blood, it makes sense that PTA has again grabbed Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood for the music.  It looks very much aligned with the same sort of unnerving dramatic tension that always hides within a PTA film.  So the bar should naturally be very high for this movie.  With no Daniel Day-Lewis, The Master now rests in the hands of Joaquin Phoenix.  Ever since he went AWOL from Hollywood, grew a huge beard and tried his luck at rapping in the I'm Still Here documentary (mockumentary?), Phoenix has yet to appear back on screen and re-establish himself as an actor of serious quality.  If he can do something along the lines of his impeccable Johnny Cash interpretation from Walk The Line (2005), then we have nothing to worry about.  We should expect great things.