With just a few days left in the 20th annual St. Louis International Film Festival, I’m giving up on getting to see all the stuff I’m interested in. Thankfully most of them will be back in theatrical runs soon or available on DVD, but it’s got me primed for the rest of the year in (crime) film. So here are some, for better or for worse, that have snagged my attention.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – It pretty much has to be on this list. The books, which I confess I’ve not read, have been huge and the Swedish adaptations met with decent critical response – so a mega-budget Hollywood version is just assumed, right, aaaaand... David Fincher gets my attention. Zodiac was just one of the best crime films of the last ten years, (I don’t love all his stuff, but man, when he’s on…) So, we’ll see. Huge expectations on this film. Can a great director satisfy the book’s huge fan base and improve upon the well regarded recent foreign film? As long as less than five percent of the actual running time is spent watching characters stare at a computer screen, it’s got a chance.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – Yeah, another one based on a book and emerging from the shadow of a well-regarded previous adaptation. This time director Tomas Alfredson is seeing what that scenario feels like from the other side. His 2008 Norwegian hit Let the Right One In based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist was imported and remade as Let Me In in 2010. With Gary Oldman taking over John Le Carre’s iconic character George Smiley from Alec Guinness, we’ll see what kind of heat (and cool) can be generated.
Rampart – Not based on a novel, but based on a script by novelist James Ellroy (credited here with story – as he was on Dark Blue where screenplay was credited to David Ayer who also wrote Training Day and come on, that one had the fingerprints of Ellroy allllll over it) and director Oren Moverman (The Messenger). Sure there’ve been some Ellroy-based stinkers made, but another chance for him to play in the LAPD’s Rampart Division, (whose C.R.A.S.H. unit was the inspiration for The Shield's Strike Team) is one that I’m always going to give a chance.
Kill List - The trailer for this hitman/horror film looks freaky enough to get my attention by itself, but tell me that the writer/director is Ben Wheatley - the guy responsible for the near-unquantifiable Down Terrace and it skyrockets to the top of my anticipation list... with a bullet.
Outrage – Director Takeshi Kitano is one of those directors who take style-over-substance to such an extreme that style very nearly becomes substantial - at least substantial enough to look forward to another film (especially if he’s sticking with a Yakuza tale – I really don’t need another Zatoichi retooling). When he’s in full Sergio Leone mode he’s highly enjoyable, and when he’s not… he’s never a complete waste of time.
Haywire - Sure it looks like just another Milla Jovovich/Paul Anderson/Luc Besson badass-waif set-up and that's all prettttty played out, but, but, but - look at that cast and hey, it's a Steven Soderbergh joint. He's even threatening to quit making movies after this one. Alright, you've got my attention, don't waste it.
Some more smaller releases: Headhunters – Norwegian adaptation the novel by Jo Nesbo, 9:06 – a 2009 film from Slovenia that I hope gets a distribution deal soon, as I do with Soul of Sand – directed by Sidharth Srinivasan and Sergio Bianchi’s The Tenants. A couple of crime focused documentaries I’m looking forward to as well – Robert Streit’s Confidence Man: The Hugh DeNeal Story and Werner Herzog’s Into the Abyss.
Any of those on your watch list? What am I missing?
Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.
