A behind-the-scenes glimpse of "Cemetery Junction," and proof that Wes Anderson really will work again?

This being a lazy Saturday morning, I really don't have too much, but certainly wanted to pass along this BBC clip from the set of Ricky Gervais' and Stephen Merchant's "Cemetery Junction," easily one of the movies I'm most looking forward to for 2010. It really doesn't reveal a whole lot except that, once again, the two of them just love telling jokes about Ralph Fiennes, and really, who doesn't?



OK, the only other thing I've got is the first photo I've seen from Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox," which will be his first foray into animation when and if it finally comes out (there's still no release date at the IMDB.)

I used to have a lot of love for Wes Anderson, and for his early work, I certainly still do. If you were to put a gun to my head and make me list, say, my 20 favorite films, Anderson's "Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums," each an improvement on the other, would all make the list. But his last two, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and "Darjeeling Limited," have just left me more than a little cold.

In other words, Mr. Anderson really needs his mojo back, and though I have serious doubts this flick is gonna get it for him, here's hoping. Enjoy the pic, which comes courtesy of JoBlo, and the rest of your weekend. Peace out.

"Slumdog Millionaire": A tale of one city that would make Dickens smile (if he ever did)

It's high praise indeed that Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" was the one movie I was most looking forward to this year, and even with these high expectations and me having to drive 90 minutes to see it, it almost didn't disappoint at all. I say almost, but I'm in much more of a glass way more than half full kind of mood, so lets start with the many great things about this flick first.

The two strongest things it has going for it are dynamic storytelling and a vibrant visual style that will leave several images burned on your brain for days after you see it.

Though the movie gets its title from our hero's quest to compete on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" to find the love of his life (corny, yes, but often magical too), that's really just a framing device for the real story of Jamal and Salim Malik, two slumdogs growing up without parents on the streets of Mumbai.

And it's in their early life, which would indeed be a depressing tale if weren't told with inventiveness and feature two young actors, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as the young Salim and Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as the young Jamal, who are up to the task. Dickens comes in early and obviously as they fall into the hands of Maman (Ankur Vikal), a recruiter (and blinder) of children to be beggars who makes Fagan look almost like a saint.

The gangster angle comes into play later as the two boys paths start to converge, and it works extremely well as a tribute to the old flicks like "Public Enemy" and "Scarface" (the original, of course), movies I revere enough to have done my senior thesis at Catholic University on them (mostly as a very thinly veiled excuse to watch movies.) As Salim is drawn into a life of crime as a wannabe gangster, it also gives the movie one of its signature shots, of the two brothers sitting on a construction tower and looking out on a Mumbai that looks nothing like they knew as kids.

And it's in the imagery that accompanies this moving tale that Danny Boyle really shows his love for the city and its people. It brings me no pleasure at all to pile on Wes Anderson, but how he was able to film "Darjeeling Limited" in India and make it so devoid of life as Boyle's movie is packed with it just becomes a bigger mystery now. As the most direct example, watch any train scene from "Darjeeling" against the sequences in "Slumdog" in which Jamal and Salim live on the rails, and I think you'll see exactly what I mean (in particular look out for Jamal hanging by his ankles to swipe a piece of bread through a train compartment window.)

In spirit and actual imagery, it compares much more directly with Fernando Meirelles' "City of God," which I hold in extremely high esteem. A challenge: How many movies can you think of this year that show you something you've never seen before, and can therefore be hailed as something close to "unique"? I can think of only three in my early-morning haze, "Slumdog", "The Fall" and "The Dark Knight," a big reason why all three will almost surely find a home on my top 10 films of 2008. (And "Slumdog" even manages to pack in a joke early on that shares its inspiration, if not its delivery, with the crudest gag in Kevin Smith's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" - not as nasty but equally as shocking.)

So, with all this to love about "Slumdog Millionaire," what's its biggest fault? Well, before I mention it, let me just say I've never cared much at all for game shows, apart from occasionally tuning in to see if I know the "Final Jeopardy" question.

I tell you that to tell you this: The game show angle in "Slumdog," which comes from the source novel "Q&A" by Vikas Swarup, just didn't work for me. The eldest Jamal, Dev Patel, plays the role of the beaten down but not out young man well and Anil Kapoor is the perfect counterpart as the oily game show host, but used as a device to tell Jamal's life story (I hope I'm not giving too much away here), it's just too cute and convenient by at least half. But I suppose all this is needed to tell the epic love story of Jamal and Latika (played as a woman by the truly radiant but unfortunately named Freida Pinto, who made me flash back to the most beautiful Indian woman I've ever seen on the big screen, Sarita Choudhury in Mira Nair's "Mississippi Masala"), so I was willing to forgive this one shortcoming. With kudos already piling up from the mysterious National Board of Review and the DC film critics, "Slumdog Millionaire" is likely to claim the outsider slot in this year's Best Picture race, and it would be well deserved.

A final word before I go about the soundtrack, which just offers the most infectious kind of Indian techno pop by AR Rahman, with a little MIA thrown in for good measure. And MIA's "Paper Planes" sure fits in a whole lot better here than it did in the commercial for "Pineapple Express," even if that's what made it a hit. Enjoy this audio-only clip of Rahman's "Gangsta Blues," which will hopefully liven up even the most dreary of Monday mornings. Peace out.

Jane Austen's got the cure for your TV blues

I have to confess it's been years since I've tuned in regularly for PBS' Masterpiece Theater, but given the ongoing writers' strike and the show's revamped formula, I think I'll definitely be returning starting this Sunday.

What's new? Well, first of all, the programs will be hosted by "X-Files" and Masterpiece Theater ("Bleak House") alum Gillian Anderson, which I have to say is at least a slight improvement from previous host Russell Baker (and a definite improvement from the past few years, which, if I'm not mistaken, had no host at all.)

Secondly, for the first series of shows beginning Sunday, it will be all about Jane Austen, which is just fine by me. It's a bit hard to tell, but I believe the order goes like this: Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion (still my favorite Austen work), Pride and Prejudice and finally Sense and Sensibility. These aren't the Hollywood versions, but instead four new adaptations and two previously aired works (the only one I've seen is Pride and Prejudice, and though I know the ladies are rather devoted to Mr. Firth's Mr. Darcy, I just prefer Joe Wright's movie version instead.)

Check your local listings, of course, but in Georgia at least it airs at 9 p.m. Sundays (finally, a workout for my DVR, since I'll be watching "The Wire" whilst taping both that and Masterpiece.) Tune in for a definite alternative to the reality TV onslaught that's already started and will soon turn into a deluge.

Download Fox Searchlight scripts

I usually spend my brief lunch half-hour-or-so reading Chris Cillizza's fantastic The Fix political blog, but today I just might have another option.

Fox Searchlight has put the scripts for six (which may be all) of its 2007 releases up for download here, and it shows just how strong a year the studio had. Available for your perusal are the scripts for three movies that made my top 10 ("The Savages," "Once" and "Waitress"), two that just missed the cut ("Juno" and Mira Nair's charming "The Namesake"), and one I'd have to unfortunately call a failure, Wes Anderson's "Darjeeling Limited."

Speaking of "Juno," a quick visit to Variety, which somehow tracks daily box-office numbers, shows that Jason Reitman's little flick was actually at No. 1 for Tuesday, taking in $1,445,349 to National Treasure's $1,314,178. It has netted more than $54 million so far, and should approach the magical $100M with a few more weeks of wide release. Congrats! I think I'll be devouring Diablo Cody's script along with my soup this midday.

And kudos to Amy Ryan too

It was great to see Amy Ryan return on "The Wire" Sunday, even if it looks like her man McNulty may implode any day now.

If you haven't seen her performance in "Gone Baby Gone," do so as soon as you can. You can believe all the hype: If there is indeed an Oscars ceremony this year, there's no way in the world she shouldn't be taking home a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (unless it's main instead of supporting - I have trouble telling how they judge these things.)

And now she's joining the cast of Paul Greengrass' Iraq war thriller, which begins shooting today in Spain and is inspired by Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone".

Greengrass and Brian Helgeland turned that nonfiction work into a fictional thriller set in the "Green Zone," a walled and fortified area where U.S. troops stay during the Iraq occupation. Matt Damon plays an officer who teams with a senior CIA officer to search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction, Ryan will play a New York Times foreign correspondent sent to Iraq to investigate the U.S. government's WMD claims, and Greg Kinnear plays another CIA officer.

It seems like stars of "The Wire" are popping up everywhere on the big screen, which I don't see how I'll ever consider to be anything but a great development.

"Sweet Land" in Macon this Sunday

Given the mostly pathetic wide-release lineup this week (with Juan Antonio Bayona's "The Orphanage" a clear exception - go see that one if you like stylish and smart horror), the Macon Film Guild has a definitely welcome other option on the slate this weekend.

Director Ali Selim's "Sweet Land," based on a Will Weaver short story, tells the tale of a German mail-order bride who travels to Minnesota to marry a Norwegian man during World War I. Her nationality, naturally, is an issue for the assembled locals, but I'm sure everyone eventually learns to get along. Sounds a little sappy for my tastes, but both of my parents soundly endorse this one, and that's good enough for me.

It's showing this Sunday at 2, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Douglass Theatre in downtown Macon, and if you turn out for the 2 p.m. show I'll definitely see you there. Peace out.