Life in Technicolor

There are a lot of familiar faces out with new movies as the movie festival season is on with full swing with Venice and Telluride already on. Let's familiarize ourselves with the big ones, shall we?

First off the list is Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel.




Intense!!! Portman plays a ballerina who suddenly finds a new rival for the production Swan Lake and descends into the darkness and paranoia as she struggles to maintain her position. Darren Aronofsky can really explore the dark side as he did in Requiem for a Dream and this movie has been eagerly awaited since last year. I would imagine Portman would find herself on many Best Actress lists come January. I'm curious to see Mila Kunis' performance in this. I always kinda associated her with the popular comedies (That 70s Show, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and I was surprised when she was cast in this role.

Also from Fox Searchlight is Danny Boyle's next film after winning the Oscar for direction in Slumdog Millionaire. Very interesting choice for Boyle. 127 Hours is the true story of Aron Ralston a mountain climber who has to resort to some extreme measures to get himself out a tricky situation.



James Franco is Ralston and I don't doubt for a minute this movie is going to be tame. The trailer is fast-paced (similar to Slumdog Millionaire) and showcases gorgeous scenery. Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn also star in this but this movie is going to be all Franco. Can't wait for this.

Interesting fact: Boyle used two cinematographers for this film, Anthony Dod Mantle who also won for Slumdog and Enrique Chediak. Most of the main behind-the-scenes talent from Slumdog Millionaire all reunite for 127 Hours.

Fox Searchlight is on a roll! Never Let Me Go, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, is Oscar bait already. It stars three young British talents in Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Spiderman himself, Andrew Garfield.



This trailer has a lovely sadness to it and I'm not going to include the plot summary because I fear it may give away some key points in the film.

From Focus Features comes Sofia Coppola's Somewhere about an actor who takes a good look at his life when his young daughter comes to live with him for a bit.



The movies stars Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning, younger sister of Dakota. I have admired Sofia Coppola for not sticking to the Hollywood stereotype as most star kids do. She always pick very different scripts for her films. Lost in Translation remains in most people's minds as the very perfect of films and I hope she returns to that form again.

Well, that's it for now. This post was a bit drama heavy and I hope to lighten it a bit next time as there some good movies releasing this September.