Javier Aguirresarobe

THE ROAD Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: November 25th, 2009 at 3:58 pm

We’re going to need a word which is harsher than “bleak”.  The word “bleak” does not do justice to The Road, John Hillcoat’s faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel.  Set in an apocalyptic wasteland of nothing but ugly grey, “Man” (Viggo Mortensen) and his son “Boy” (Kodi Smit-McPhee) struggle with survival where the only point is to survive, and that’s not much of a reason.  When suicide is the best thing in the world and the best use of a bullet is to kill your son to make sure he isn’t eaten alive by cannibals, you come to understand that “bleak” just doesn’t get the job done as far as adjectives go.  Neither does “hopeless”, “grim” or “dismal”.  But perhaps the greatest flaw of The Road isn’t its inability to conjure up dark adjectives, but that Hillcoat completely embraces the journey of his characters: pointless.

Director John Hillcoat Interview THE ROAD

by Sheila Roberts    Posted: November 21st, 2009 at 9:02 pm

Australian director John Hillcoat creates a bleak universe on film and brings it to life with an incredible cast in his latest film, The Road, an epic post-apocalyptic tale about the survival of a father and his young son as they journey across a barren America destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm. Based on the best-selling Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, The Road stars Academy Award-nominee Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce and young newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee.

While The Road is a tough movie to watch, it’s an incredible story and something worth your time.  We recently had the pleasure to speak with John Hillcoat and our interview is after the jump.  He talks about making the film, casting, film stock, why did he shoot in Pennsylvania, working with Viggo, and a lot more.  It’s a great interview so take a look:

Full Trailer for THE TWILIGHT SAGA – NEW MOON Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: September 13th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

The first full trailer for “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” is frustrating.  It’s frustrating because if you didn’t pay attention to any of the narrative stuff and just turned the sound off, you’d have a visually impressive film.  Director Chris Weitz and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (who also shot John Hillcoat’s “The Road” which hits theatres five days later so as far as DP work goes, that’s a fun juxtaposition) have made a film that completely blows away Catherine Hardwicke’s all-blue-filter, all-the-time style of the first “Twilight” film.

But then there’s the story and you have a girl who has become so dependent on a boy that instead of just having normal teenage sadness about a break-up, she makes attempts at suicide through reckless behavior.  What’s worse is that as the trailer continues the messages appears to be, “Don’t be a strong, independent woman,” as much as it’s, “My boyfriend needs me and I have to save him or else I’ll be lonely and weak again!”  But I’m sure that the “Twilight” fans have ignored all my commentary and skipped straight to the trailer after the jump.  “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” opens and feminism suffers on November 20^th.

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