TFC Journal at TheFilmChair.com

I won’t be posting updates for a couple of days starting now. Well, not now, but immediately after I hit publish on this post.

TFC Journal has had it’s biggest month ever, so I have to my hosting company is having me switch to a new, faster server with even greater bandwidth.  Thanks to everyone who visited the site this month.

Luckily, I was probably going to have to hold off posting because I’m going to the land of milk and honey–Austin, Texas. The land of Harry Knowles and Robert Rodriguez. The home of the Alamo Drafthouse. Ahh Austin. If anything interesting happens, you can catch instant updates by following me on Twitter (@danstasiewski).

Hopefully the transition will be completed sometime over the weekend. I’ll be back posting on Monday. Check back then for more updates on all the news that’s fit for me to care about.

xoxo

A Serious Man (2009)–****

It goes against conventional wisdom to even suggest that the Coen brothers could make a better film than Fargo. Their latest comedy, A Serious Man, however, comes daringly close. It’s more fiercely moralistic than any other Coen brothers film, without the brute force. And it’s more intensely personal than anything we’ve seen them produce, with moments of comic sadness that even regular Coen audiences won’t expect. A Serious Man brings clarity to the Coens’ filmography, but even this single film, which feels like a culminating work, delivers, in itself, on a level only the brothers could achieve.

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Mad Men star January Jones has nabbed another motion picture role. Variety reports that Jones star opposite Nicolas Cage in the dramatic thriller The Hungry Rabbit Jumps, directed by Roger Donaldson.

The Hungry Rabbit Jumps tells the story of a man (Cage) who decides to go vigilante after his wife (Jones) is the victim of a violent crime.

Jones has had a really good week after this and scoring the role as Liam Neeson’s wife in Unknown White Male. The downside? It’s pity that the gorgeous Jones has to resort to playing house with Cage and Neeson, who will play her husband in Unknown White Male, after being married to the swoon-worthy Jon Hamm in Mad Men.

Will the Academy see a Nelson Mandela movie or a Rugby movie? Will they like Damon’s Africkaans accent as much as they liked Leo’s in Blood Diamond? I don’t know if this little trailer makes the Oscar picture any clearer. It certainly looks solid. If I’ve learned one thing from past Oscars, you don’t ever count out Clint. (Unless, of course, Stephen Daldry has a movie out.)

Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, directed by Clint Eastwood, opens Dec. 11.

A few weeks ago, it was announced that Jeff Bridges was up for the role of U.S. marshal Reuben J. ‘Rooster’ Cogburn in the Coen brothers upcoming adaptation of True Grit. Now the Coen vet Josh Brolin and Coen virgin Matt Damon are both in talks to join the cast, so says THR.

True Grit follows a 14-year-old girl who is escorted into Native American territory by a whiskey-swilling U.S. marshal (Bridges) and a Texas Ranger in search of the man who killed her father. Damon will play the role of the Texas Ranger with Josh Brolin playing another major role. (The outlaw?)  The girl has yet to be cast.

By the People: The Election of Barack Obama (2009)–***

By the People: The Election of Barack Obama has the least amount of political analysis of any political documentary that I’ve seen. That’s not to say it’s lacking substance, but in telling the story of Barack Obama’s historic election, you realize that not much reflection on style or cunning is needed. It’s a story so simple that the title sums it up. This election wouldn’t have happened without the dedicated millions who stood up for one man and his vision of America.

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Mad Men star January Jones and Quentin Tarantino’s latest foot queen Diane Kruger have both signed on to join Liam Neeson in the Dark Castle thriller Unknown White Male, according to Variety. The film follows a man who wakes up from a coma only to discover that someone has stolen his identity. (And I’m not talking credit card fraud.)

Kruger will play a friendly Berlin cabbie. Jones will play Liam Neeson’s wife. I don’t know which is more unrealistic.

Talk about having to choose between the lesser of two evils. erc BoxOffice reports that the ultra-low budget thriller Paranormal Activity topped the weekend box office with $22 million, beating seasonal favorite Saw VI for the No. 1 spot. That’s two years in a row now that the Saw movie of the year has lost the top spot. With a $14.8 million opening, Saw VI is also the only film in the franchise since the series first sequel opened to take in less than $30 million its first weekend out.

While I welcome the turn away from torture porn, I’m still disturbed that a movie as bad as Paranormal Activity can become a phenomenon. I never hated the Saw movies because of the filmmaking. PA is just bad from top to bottom.

Well, if Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen can make $400 million, anything is possible for bad movies.

American Idol runner-up and future pop superstar Adam Lambert will be featured in 2012 with the song “Time for Miracles.” I won’t begrudge him for appearing on this soundtrack. At least it’s not for a Michael Bay flick. Plus, if Adam Lambert gets to perform on Oscar night, it’s totally worth it.