Aquarius (2016) - Braga stays with us in Filho's multifaceted drama

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+ Best Brazilian Movie of the Year + Best Character Study of the Year  + Best Political Movie of the Year

Fittingly, Sonia Braga is at the center of this poster for Kleber Mendonça Filho's Aquarius

Aquarius is the second fiction feature from great Brazilian writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Neighboring Sounds/O Som ao Redor (2012).

Clara is a cancer survivor, widow, mother and grandmother in her 60s, comfortably living in her beach-front apartment, which is in the building Aquarius, which a huge construction company want to tear down to allow for new construction.

Aquarius is solidly anchored in its location of Recife, Brazil, where Filho also is from, which it portrays with tenderness and insight. It establishes its pace, which some may call languid, but which is really quite daring, instantly. Daring because all those minutes of running time need material, meanings and focus. Best of course is that the film pulls it off. We do get much more insight and meanings, - poignant observations on the differences between Clara and her children's generations, on child care, death, sickness, sexuality, personal strength through opposition, - even a wry comment on the 'digital revolution' - much more than would have been possible at a tighter running time.
Aquarius is a film that hinges on a single performance more than anything else: That of Sonia Braga (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands/Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (1976)), who gets a well-deserved and terrific comeback here in her first Brazilian performance in 15 years as Clara, the stubborn, proud, dignified and incredibly beautiful protagonist. Much of the suspense of the film,  - clearly a drama but one with a central conflict (that of the company's wanting to rid their building of obstinate Clara) that becomes very tense, - comes from our recognition of Clara's fragility in the situation, despite her personal character strengths. Satisfyingly, though, Filho does not push his plot into the criminal and violent problems of his country that we might expect, but instead leads us to an ending that is both surprising, shocking and thrillingly empowering. Braga is like a force of nature throughout but not least here.
Though the film has good supporting performances all-around, one deserves singling out: Humberto Carrão (Aurora (2016)) plays the young, slimy company chief who attempts to harass Clara out of her home with a naturalness that is positively off-putting, - doing a great job in other words.
Aquarius is a wholly realistic story with the kind of imperceptible, taut photography (by Pedro Sotero (I Swear I'll Leave This Town/Prometo um Dia Deixar Essa Cidade (2014)) and Fabricio Tadeu (Neighboring Sounds)) that is only commenting imperceptibly on the action, - except for the throwback use of zooms now and then.
Aquarius is rich on poignant details that are open for interpretation and implicit social and societal criticisms. It is a very worthwhile and unusual film not to miss.

Related posts:

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film with Spanish subtitles here

Cost: Reportedly 3.4 mil. R$, equal to approximately 1.07 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 2.6 mil. $
= Even
[Aquarius premiered 17 May (Cannes) and runs 140 minutes. Braga rehearsed for 3 weeks prior to filming. Shooting took place in Recife, Brazil in seven weeks from August - September 2015. The team behind the film spurred controversy at Cannes with a red carpet protest against what they saw as the coup at home against president Dilma. Controversy continued through the film's life in Brazil, possibly leading to its not becoming the country's Oscar entry (much less seen Little Secret/Pequeno Segredo (2016) got that honor instead.) The film opened #56 in 3 theaters to a 29k $ first weekend in North America, its 3rd biggest market, where it peaked at #44 and grossed 285k $ (11 % of the total gross). The biggest markets were Brazil with 1.2 mil. $ (46.2 %) and France with 601k $ (23.1 %). The gross above does not include several smaller markets, whose gross are not made public. The film is set to release in Greece and Poland within the next two months. It has been nominated for a César (France's Oscar), an Independent Spirit Award, won the Sydney Film Festival Best Film award and more. Aquarius is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Aquarius ?

EDtv (1999) - Phenomenal cast shine in Howard's witty mega-flop

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+ Best Mega-Flop Movie of the Year + Best Satire of the Year

This eye-catching poster for Ron Howard's EDtv conveys the intrusiveness of cameras that the plot centers around

A major reality TV channel launch their new venture: 24 hour a day covering of one person's life. That person is 30 year-old Ed, who works in a video store and is falling for his brother's girlfriend.

EDtv is written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (Robots (2005), both) and directed by great Oklahoman filmmaker Ron Howard (Cocoon (1985)), based on the Canadian film Louis, 19, King of the Airwaves/ Louis 19, le Roi des Ondes (1994).  Howard plays the material broadly, and he continually brings us audiences into Ed's drama along with the TV audiences by their screens, which is a little unengaging and a bit depressing as well, because it puts us in the same boat with the TV audiences who are content to completely pause their own lives in order to follow Ed's...
Luckily, EDtv has some really funny lines and situations, and the cast is phenomenal, filled with endearing personalities: Ellen DeGeneres (Finding Dory (2016)), Woody Harrelson (After the Sunset (2004)), Matthew McConaughey (Fool's Gold (2008)) and Jenna Elfman (Damages (2012), TV-series) are good in big parts, engaging and funny; Rob Reiner (The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)) as the cynical TV channel boss and Martin Landau (Firehead (1991)) as the wheelchair-bound stepfather are both perfect. Dennis Hopper (River's Edge (1986)) is icing on the cake in some of the more emotional scenes.
EDtv is a good movie that seems in some way to participate in the reality TV wave of the late 1990s while also criticizing it some.

Related posts:

Ron Howard: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject)
The Da Vinci Code (2006) - Howard's first Brown adaptation is a popcorn thriller hoot
Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
A Beautiful Mind (2001) - John Nash given the Epic Treatment  

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Backdraft (1991) - Howard's giant, stupid Chicago-set firefighter movie 
American Graffiti (1973) or, Cruisin' Modesto '62 (actor) 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 80 mil. $
Box office: 35.2 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[EDtv  was released 26 March (USA) and runs 123 minutes. Shooting took place from March - July 1998 in California and Florida. The film opened #3 behind hold-over hits Forces of Nature and Analyze This to an 8.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its second week and grossed a paltry 22.4 mil. $ (63.6 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5/4 stars, translating to a notch harder than this review. The film bears a striking resemblance in plot to Peter Weir's highly successful The Truman Show (1998), starring Jim Carrey, which revolves around a reality TV show about one person's life, lived in an artificial world only he doesn't know is a huge set. While Howard's career could take a hit and was fast back on track, (with How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), starring Carrey, and possibly his career's best, Oscar-winner A Beautiful Mind (2001)) the incredibly over-budgeted, hugely expense flop EDtv marked a more severe downwards turn career-wise for McConaughey, who mostly starred in smaller and lower quality films for the following decade before beginning his come-back to form in 2011 with Bernie and Killer Joe. EDtv is fresh at 63 % with a 6.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of EDtv?

The Marriage of Maria Braun/Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1979) - Fassbinder blows up post-WWII Germany

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A German poster for Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun that exudes romanticism and downfall

Maria Braun is incredibly unfortunate with her marriage, as it only lasts 1½ day before she looses her beloved husband to the demands of World War II. But she persists in her love to him, - and after several years, he returns.

The Marriage of Maria Braun is written by Pea Fröhlich (Der Bulle & das Mädchen (1985)), Peter Märthesheimer (Lola (1981)) and Kurt Raab (The Island of the Bloody Plantation/Die Insel der Blutigen Plantage (1983)), with German master filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul/Angst Essen Seele Auf (1974)) contributing idea and dialog. The film feels like a heartfelt chastisement of his native Germany, told with a lot of show by Fassbinder, which I think is somewhat overrated in some circles. There is a sense of moral bankruptcy, resignation and emptiness to Maria Braun and her countrymen here.
The Marriage of Maria Braun is a peculiar movie, - and a wild one, - with some good scenes but also some slightly dull periods. Its intro credits are ghastly. SPOILER The ending with the gas explosion, on the other hand, is unforgettable. This is a film especially for the Fassbinder and/or Germany-interested cinephile. 

Related post:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul/Angst Essen Seele Auf (1974) or, Ali und Emmi und die Anderen

Watch a short clip from the film here

Cost: Reportedly 2 mil. DEM
Box office: Unknown (but in excess of 8 mil. DEM)
= Uncertainty (but at least a big hit)
[The Marriage of Maria Braun premiered 20 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 115 minutes. The script was born out of an unrealized TV project. Producer Michael Fengler oversold the rights to the film's profits to scrape its budget together, which ballooned during production, partially to fund director Fassbinder's rampant cocaine use, which killed him in 1982. Shooting took place from January - February 1978 in Germany, including in Berlin. It is the first film in Fassbinder's BRD (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) trilogy that also contains Lola (1981) and Veronika Voss (1982), which are about women in post-WWII West Germany. Fassbinder was busy writing Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), miniseries) during shooting and was in a self-destructive, bleak period of his life. Fengler and Fassbinder broke their bond over the film, and Fengler Film never made another film. At the film's Berlin festival run, it ('only') won the Silver Bear and an actress award for lead Hanna Schygulla (The Clown/Ansichten eines Clowns (1976)), which disappointed Fassbinder. The film eventually sold a reported 1.9 mil. tickets in Germany, grossing 4 mil. DEM there, released in both West and East Germany, the latter as the first Fassbinder film reaching the other part of his country, which happened in 1981. It was also a hit abroad, grossing 1.8 mil. $ in North America. Roger Ebert has added it to his list of Great Films. Other figures regrettably remain elusive. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, won a David di Donatello award (Italy's Oscar), 5 out of 6 nominations at the German Film Awards, a National Board of Review award and more. The film's rights battle continued in a legal battle in the late 1980s before they ended up with the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation. 9,321 IMDb-users have given The Marriage of Maria Braun a 7.9/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Marriage of Maria Braun?

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) or, The Court Case Against Emily Rose's Exorcist

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A misty, chilling poster for Scott Derrickson's The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Rose is a possibly possessed young woman who dies during an unsuccessful exorcism. Now her Catholic priest exorcist stands accused of causing her death. - But what really killed her?

The Exorcism of Emily Rose is written by Paul Harris Boardman (Deliver Us from Evil (2014)) and co-writer-director Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange (2016)), based on a true story. The story is told through a mix of choppy, flickering flashbacks of Jennifer Carpenter (Battle in Seattle (2007)) as the demonically possessed - or merely psychotic - Emily Rose with the post-death present plane, wherein we get Laura Linney (The Details (2011)) and Tom Wilkinson (Snowden (2016)) injecting integrity into the tale with fine performances.
The film surprises as more of a court room drama than the horror we are led to expect from the title and poster. SPOILER The ending is an incomprehensible misfire, as Father Wilkinson is found guilty but still simply gets to walk away. Still, The Exorcism of Emily Rose is fairly entertaining.

Related posts:

Scott Derrickson: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Sinister (2012) - Derrickson's genuinly unpleasant horror

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) - Unduly bashed sci-fi drama

Listen to a track from the film's soundtrack here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 144.2 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The Exorcism of Emily Rose premiered 1 September (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 119 minutes. The film is based on the story of German Anneliese Michel, who passed away in 1976 after 67 exorcisms at a weight of just 68 lbs. Comparisons of film and the real and disturbing story can be found here. Filming took place in Los Angeles and in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from November 2004 onward. The film opened #1 to a stellar 30 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top five for another two weeks (#2, #5) and grossed 75 mil. $ (52 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Catholic: Mexico with 7.1 mil. $ (4.9 %) and Spain with 7 mil. $ (4.9 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars, translating to one notch higher than this review. The same story has inspired a much greater German film by Hans-Christian Schmid, Requiem (2006). The Exorcism of Emily Rose is rotten at 45 % with a 5.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Exorcism of Emily Rose?

Escape from L.A./John Carpenter's Escape from L.A./Escape from Los Angeles (1996) or, Snake Plissken in Crazy-World!

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+ Costliest Flop of the Year: 31.12 mil. $ range

Kurt Russell looks cool in the intense colors on this poster for John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.

Snake Plissken is back, this time in the year 2013, in which he avoids deportation by getting imposed an assignment by the mad president of the United States to capture his daughter and a weapon on the prison island that is Los Angeles.

Escape from L.A. is a colorful an very wacky sequel to New Yorker master co-writer-director John Carpenter's (Halloween (1978)) own great Escape from New York (1981). It features some early CGI, which looks curious today, and an exaggerated plot that doesn't reach the heights of the first film or another comparable 1990s sci-fi-action great like Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall (1990).
But Escape from L.A. does have its own kind of charm and a cast that contains several smaller scoops, including a scene where Bruce Campbell (Burn Notice (2007-13)) plays a crazy plastic surgeon, which is a favorite, and Pam Grier (Linc's (1998-2000)) playing a male-to-female transgender, (hadn't seen that coming.)
Escape from L.A. is co-written with Debra Hill (The Fog (1980)) and returning star Kurt Russell (Dark Blue (2002), actor). It is a noisy and nonsensical piece of super-kitsch. SPOILER Especially the film's ending is odd, as Plissken "bombs the world 500 years back" by turning off the power with a satellite.

Related posts:

John Carpenter: Cigarette Burns (2005, TV movie) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie 

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Christine (1983) or, Bad Plymouth!
Escape from New York (1981) - Carpenter introduces Kurt Russell as action star in dystopic dream
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) - Solid action guerilla film-making

Watch an ad for the film from a VHS tape here - featuring creative marketing that changes the film's huge flop status by referring to it as a "25 mil. $ box office smash", - some 20 years after movies broke the 100 mil. $ mark at the domestic box office ...

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 47.2 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Escape from L.A. was released 9 August (North America) and runs 101 minutes.  The film was in development for almost a decade but was sped up by the 1992 LA riots, the 1994 LA earthquake as well as Russell's wish to play Plissken again. The budget was more than 8 times that of the original film. Shooting took place in California, including at Universal Studios, Texas and Miami, Florida from December 1995 - March 1996. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Jack and hold-over hit A Time to Kill, to an 8.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell out of the top 5 in its second week, only played 4 weeks and grossed just 25.4 mil. $ (53.8 mil. % of the total gross.) Roger Ebert gave the film 3½/4 stars, equal to two notches better than this review. Escape from L.A. is rotten at 53 % with a 5.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Escape from L.A.?

The Eiger Sanction (1975) - Eastwood's mountain climbing dud

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Clint Eastwood looks fierce in spiked climber's shoes on this painted poster for his own The Eiger Sanction

Our hero is an art professor, who has retired from a former career as hitman. But he is now brought back into the service due to a combination of a killing of an ex-colleague and our man's own unique mountain climbing skills.

The Eiger Sanction begins fairly well with master filmmaker director-star Clint Eastwood (The First Traveling Saleslady (1956)) in his familiar corner as a character who is, in short, a superior, womanizing lone wolf. Here he reports, - and negotiates with tremendous luck, - with his blind albino boss in near-darkness.
Quite some time passes before we get to the titular Eiger Sanction, a mission name for Eastwood's hit job on the Swiss mountain the Eiger. Then a while passes with the training and mountain climbing in general, which I found very light on suspense. The Eiger Sanction almost develops into a buddy movie at this point with Eastwood and George Kennedy (Hangfire (1991)).
The Eiger Sanction is written by Hal Dresner (Husbands and Wives (1977), TV movie), Warren Murphy (Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), story) and Rod 'Trevanian' Whitaker (Hot Night in the City (2004), short story), based on Whitaker's same-titled 1972 novel. The film features great aerial photography but is deeply unexciting, very unhip and nearly sexist. It also remains a mystery to me why the plot's central hit absolutely has to happen on the Eiger, but maybe that's just me.... (?)

Related posts:

Clint Eastwood: Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
American Sniper (2014) - Eastwood conveys an American man and myth in electric masterpiece  
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess   
J. Edgar (2011) - Eastwood, Black and DiCaprio's great, intense biopic   
The Changeling (2008) or, The Christine Collins Story  
The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie (actor)
City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair (actor)
Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller (actor)
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business! (actor)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - Siegel, Tuggle and Eastwood's phenomenal prison escape thriller (actor)
Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business! (actor)
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller (actor)  
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life (actor)
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It! (actor)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho (actor) 

Listen to a piece of John Williams' elegant score for the film while seeing pictures from the production in this video

Cost: 9 mil. $
Box office: 14.2 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty (but likely a minor flop)
[The Eiger Sanction was released 21 May (USA) and runs 129 minutes. Trevanian's novel, his first published, was a James Bond spoof, which was turned more serious in the script. Eastwood wasn't interested in spy films but took the opportunity to end his three-movie deal with Universal, who he wasn't happy with, and also to get to shoot far away from the studio while challenging his own mountain climbing skills. Shooting took place in Utah, Arizona, California and Switzerland, including on and around the actual Eiger mountain, from August - September 1974. A 26 year-old climber who worked on the production was killed on the Eiger as part of an accident that also left another crew member injured, and it was considered to cancel the production. Reportedly led on by other climbers, Eastwood decided to go on, and the dangerous shoot, in which he did his own stunts, went on. Eastwood invited cast and crew for a wrap party at his own California restaurant, the Hog Breath's Inn. Roger Ebert awarded the film 3/4 stars, translating to two notches higher than this review. The international box office figures are not publicized, but if we assume that the film did modest business and ended up with a 20-22 mil. $ gross, the film counts as a flop or a minor flop. The Eiger Sanction is fresh at 69 % with a 6.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Eiger Sanction?

A Hole in My Heart/Ett Hål i Mitt Hjärta (2004) or, A Hole in My Brain

[ZERO]

 

+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Decade

+ Worst Movie of the Year

A young woman seems to have passed out in some cereal or her own vomit on this poster for Lukas Moodysson's A Hole in My Heart

4 people are in a small, ugly apartment; 3 of them are making a porno flick. The fourth is an insufferably depressed emo-son of one of the pornographers.

A Hole in My Heart is a complete botch by Swedish master writer-director Lukas Moodysson (Lilya 4-Ever (2002)). It is a bit as if a white racist had made a film about blacks, this simply being the deeply prejudiced, one-sided and unwatchable pornography narrative conjured up by a pornography-hater. Few if any good films have ever sprung from hate, and A Hole in My Heart sure isn't one to change that.
The mix of nonsense is dreadfully related to us in off-putting digital photography. The least unsympathetic of the four is the exceedingly drab son, (played by Björn Almroth, who hasn't appeared in anything before or since), and this may constitute the movie's primary sin: It is unbearably dull throughout, as well as pretentious in the extreme.
I value some of Moodysson's other films tremendously, but I don't hesitate in calling A Hole in My Heart a mountain of plot-deprived bull. Trash.

 

Related post:

 

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

An interview with Moodysson in connection with his most recent film, We Are the Best!/Vi Är Bäst! (2013)

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown (but likely a mega-flop)
[A Hole in My Heart premiered 10 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 98 minutes. Moodysson initially intended to shoot the film in the US and ask Christina Aguilera and Sylvester Stallone to star in it, but realized he couldn't do it. It was shot in 4 weeks in Trollhättan, Sweden in August 2003. At least one of the cast members, Thorsten Flinck, reportedly took morphine during shooting to cope with the troubling work.The film was released with a 'disturbing images'-warning on its posters in Sweden, which the censors there hadn't done since Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò (1976). It was shown in a few theaters, and 16,425 paid admission there in its first two weeks. In Denmark, who acted as co-producing country behind the film, just 1,402 paid admission to see it. The film was released in 1 theater in North America, where it played for two weeks at #112 and #131 and grossed 3,784 $. If the budget was a modest 5 mil. SEK (approximately 0.56 mil. $), the film looks like a mega-flop theatrically. It was, incredibly, nominated for the European Film Award and the Nordic Council Film Prize. A Hole in My Heart is rotten at 41 % with a 4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Hole in My Heart?

Shake It All About/En Kort En Lang/Shake It (2001) or, Him or Her?

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Mads Mikkelsen is like a louse caught between two nails on this poster for Hella Joof's Shake It All About

Jacob proposes to his boyfriend, but then falls for a woman, Caroline. - Can he have it all?

Shake It All About is the charming little romcom debut of Danish co-writer-director Hella Joof (Oh Happy Day (2004)), co-written with Klaus Bondam (Sharks/Inkasso/The Collector (2004), actor), based on an idea by producer Thomas Gammeltoft (Good People (2014)) and Michael Christoffersen (Law of the Jungle (2012, documentary), writer-director). It is an incredibly silly film that provides essentially bad and stereotypical characterizations of gays in a lot of ways, but which also served as the upbeat, Danish coming-together LGBT movie of the new millennium.
It is funny, - although undoubtedly mostly for Danes, - and in the laugh section, especially Ditte Gråbøl (Oh Happy Day) and Peter Frödin (Grethe (2016-17)) tickle the ribs with their performances. Troels Lyby (Headhunter (2009)) and Mads Mikkelsen (Men & Chicken/Mænd & Høns (2015)) are both very good in the leads, and Mikkelsen has the added quality of being very easy on the eyes here. Shake It All About wins an extra point for its wholly fantastic ending.

 Watch a 1-minute scene from the film here

Cost:  Reportedly 16.5 mil. DKK, equal to approximately 2.35 mil. $
Box office: Unknown (but projected at around 36-37 mil. DKK)
= Uncertainty (but likely a minor flop)
[Shake It All About was released 16 November (Denmark) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place in Christianshavn, Kastrup Airport and other places in Denmark as well as in Malmö, Sweden. It was shown in competition at the Moscow International Film Festival, worth noting in context of Russia's homophobic culture. The film was a big hit in Denmark, where 584,064 paid admission, (but played in 'Biografklub Danmark' [cinema club Denmark], which means that a large portion of the tickets were sold at half prize), but if it hasn't made more of a dent internationally than the few numbers out suggest (6k admissions in Norway; 26k € gross in Italy), it was, at least theatrically, a minor flop. It was nominated for 6 Robert Awards (Danish Oscar), winning the Audience Award, Best Supporting Actor (Lyby), Best Song (Vent på Mig by Martin Brygmann, Frödin and Joof, which was also a huge Danish radio hit for years) and Best Sound. It was also nominated for 2 Bodil Awards (Danish critics' awards). 2,679 IMDb users have given Shake It All About a 6.1/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Shake It All About?

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972) - Allen's curious sex comedy is a riot

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This upbeat poster for Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) invites us to its free-minded vagaries

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) is a kind of anthology of various sex-related topics, based on Dr. David Reuben's (Any Woman Can!) same-titled 1969 book, written and directed by New Yorker master filmmaker Woody Allen (Crisis in Six Scenes (2016), TV-series), including:

What is Sodomy? Gene Wilder (The Frisco Kid (1979)) is a sheep-loving man in free fall. Why Do Some Women Have Trouble Reaching an Orgasm? Allen conjures up an homage to Italian cinema as the title issue is broached. What Are Sex Perverts? Perversions are put under the magnifying glass in a mock TV show. Are the Findings of Doctors and Clinics Who Do Sexual Research and Experiments Accurate? John Carradine (The McMasters (1970)) is a madly funny mad doctor conducting sexual experiments, and a giant tit attacks. What Happens During Ejaculation? A look into the male internal system leading up to an intercourse and ejaculation.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) is a crazy-funny movie full of hilarious absurd comedy. My favorite segment is the one with Carradine as a sex research doctor. The film investigates sex without taboos and serves its truths with a childlike glee concerning its topic, which is coupled with great intelligence. SPOILER Its end is blunted, but the film is great.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) is unique and elevated madness. - You have to see it!

Related posts:
 

 

Woody Allen: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess

Café Society (2016) - The greatest living American filmmaker hands us another splendid gem

Irrational Man (2015) - Allen's pleasant morality tale divertisement

2014 in films - according to Film Excess

Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presenets Blanchett, a woman under the influence

Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (as actor)

To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date  

2011 in films - according to Film Excess

Midnight in Paris (2011) - Allen's zany (and a little depressing) crowd-pleaser  

Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac  

Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy  

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans 
Celebrity (1998) or, Stars in New York
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) - Sin and guilt up for laughs and rumination in unspectacular Allen work 
Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart   
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer   
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs   
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)   

Watch a short clip with Gene Wilder from the film here

Cost: 2 mil. $
Box office: 18 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit
[Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) premiered 6 August (New York) and runs 88 minutes. Shooting took place from January - March 1972 in California. The film reached #1 in North America on its second week of release, rocking Deliverance from the honor for a week. The film became the 13th highest-grossing movie of 1972 in the US. It also seems to have been a hit abroad with 2 mil. admissions in West Germany, 1.7 mil. in France and 1 mil. in Spain. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) is fresh at 89 % with a 7.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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