The clip below is a RealTVAddict exclusive from The Next Three Days, which will be released on the 19th of November.

I had been anticipating this movie for months, and the other night I finally got the chance to see it at my local theater. A young British actor named Aaron Johnson is remarkably superb as John Lennon, the focus of this stark yet engaging film directed by Sam Taylor-Wood and written by Matt Greenhaigh, who based his script on a memoir by Julia Baird, Lennon’s half-sister.

Most of the movie explores the relationship between John and his Aunt Mimi, who raised him from the age of five, and that of John and his mother, Julia, a troubled and immature woman who never felt she had the strength to be a part of John’s life until it was too late to make a difference. The feelings coursing through John that linger from his mother’s neglect mixed with those born of her sudden reappearance in his life are portrayed visually in a masterful way.

Aaron Johnson captures Lennon’s desperate playfulness and inner turmoil with every word, facial expression, and violent outburst. He makes me wonder if John loved rock and roll for the sake of the music itself, as Paul McCartney did, or if he grasped onto the music as a way out of a psychological hell. Seeing this movie helps us understand the source of the pain we hear in early Beatles songs like “I Call Your Name.”

Kristin Scott Thomas is perfect as the stoic Mimi, determined to steer John toward proper manhood. I kept waiting for her famous line, “The guitar’s all very well, John, but you’ll never make a living out of it,” but she never said it, which is probably all well and good, I’ve decided, because it would have sounded cheesy since everybody knows it. And Anne-Marie Duff hits every nuance just right to give us a sympathetic portrait of the unstable Julia.

The few musical scenes that serve to drive the plot are touching because the fledgling Beatles’ musicianship is immature but, since we have hindsight, full of promise. Paul skillfully playing “Twenty Flight Rock” for John at their first meeting and John feigning indifference and skepticism to maintain his pride in front of his band, the Quarrymen, is an emotional highlight of the film. It peeks into the heart of John and Paul’s burgeoning partnership and also foreshadows their future conflicts.

No well-known Lennon-McCartney songs are played during the narrative, which is fitting since they hadn’t yet been written, but the first sound on the soundtrack is the distinctive opening chord to “A Hard Day’s Night,” not as heard on the Beatles record, but that same chord nonetheless. This is the perfect opening touch, the first of many small details that are right on the mark.

I have no idea how someone who is not a Beatles fan would respond to this film, but if you love the Beatles, you will love this movie.

Henry Phillips plays himself as an itinerant singer-songwriter who has played one too many disappointing gigs out in the heartland. His forte is the edgy, bawdy, irreverent, and (he hopes) funny acoustic ballad, and unwittingly performing such material before a truck stop audience of “Miniature Golfers for God” brings him to reevaluate the direction his career has been taking. So he decides to move to L.A., crash on his brother’s couch (of course the brother is a struggling actor), and find himself an agent: a middle-aged scrapper played superbly by Ellen Ratner, who describes Henry as “James Taylor on smack.” When Henry points out to her that James Taylor really was on smack, she doesn’t seem to understand his point. Moments like this are part of the fun.

I loved watching this movie. All the satire is spot on. In my younger days, I tried my hand at doing the singer-songwriter thing, and many of the scenes in this film are so familiar that they hurt. Ellen’s frenetic pace and non-stop faux optimism are priceless. The milieu of the coffeehouse “Espresso Yourself” reminded me of every open-mic hootenanny joint I’d played, where most of the audience were other “artists” waiting to perform. During Henry’s one demo recording session, the owner of the small record label won’t even let Henry finish a verse before demanding something snappier.

In a radio interview taking place at three a.m. — what time could have been more appropriate? — Henry makes it clear that he is no Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, or (for the sake of extra hyperbole) Albert Einstein, and that is what endears him to us. He is us. We can relate to every frustration and every fledgling hope, especially since Henry is not getting any younger and has been the victim of a terrible misunderstanding in the local press.

If this movie is shown in a theater anywhere near you, please go out and support it. We need films like Punching the Clown to keep cinema vibrant and interesting. There’s too much of the same old same old out there. What Viens and Phillips offer is the equivalent of the great little paperback novel you sometimes find on a back shelf when browsing in your local independent bookstore, if indeed such a place still exists in your neighborhood. It’s not War and Peace or Moby-Dick, but that’s all right. Sometimes all you need is a little dusty gem to keep you going.

8. Say hello to my little friend

In perhaps the most memorable scene from Scarface, Tony Montana busts out from his office wielding an assault rifle with a grenade launcher attached, screaming “Say hello to my little friend!”

7. In this country, you gotta make the money first

Montana has it right. Money is what makes the world go round, and without it, you don’t have anything.

6. All I have is my balls and my word

Tony Montana reminds us that he’s no narc and that he never screws over anyone who doesn’t have it coming.

5. Well frog face…

This is what it sounds like when your fate is sealed.

4. Like a bug coming out of your mouth

Tony comments on Manny’s strategy for hitting on women.

3. I didn’t come here to break my back

Tony didn’t come to the U.S. to break his f’ing back, hijo.

2. Now that’s a great metaphor

Tony compares LA to a woman’s private parts. Nice.

1. That’s a pig that don’t fly straight

Tony explains the definition of hosser for us.

Celebrity obituaries are always a tricky thing.  It seems sort of unfair to sum up someone’s life based on their resume and their public persona.  We’d love to think we really know these folks, but we don’t.  We only know what they let us see.  So, I am not here today to eulogize the great Tony Curtis, who passed away this morning at his Las Vegas home, but rather to thank him for the joy and entertainment he gave us all and hopefully inspire anyone who doesn’t know his work to investigate all he did and continues to do.  After all, as the father of Jamie Lee Curtis, his legacy will continue on for many years to come.

Obviously, everyone should be on a first name basis with Some Like It Hot, but if you are unfamiliar with the great Curtis where do you start in the career of a man with 130 credits to his name on IMDB?  Beyond his gender bending career role, Tony was in everything from westerns to WWII flicks to horror and slapstick.  He worked with Billy Wilder, Robert DeNiro, Stanley Kubrick, Cary Grant, Sidney Poitier, Kirk Douglas, Jimmy Stewart, and was married to Janet Leigh.  It is hard to go wrong with any title you pick up, but to get you started, here are five of my personal favorites to start your education:

1.  Operation Petticoat (1959)

Two Words: Pink Submarine!  Highly overlooked comedy gem with Curtis and the legendary Cary Grant.

2.  Spartacus  (1960)

“I’m a singer of songs, master”  Probably the greatest sword & sandals flick ever, Curtis adds a lot of depth in a supporting role.

3.  The Great Race  (1965)

Think Wacky Races live action style.  In the dictionary under “zany.”

4.  The Defiant Ones  (1958)

Powerful character piece about two escaped prisoners shackled together and on the run.

5.  Sex and the SIngle Girl (1964)

Natalie Wood + screwball comedy = classic 60s comedy gold!  Pay attention to all the jabs at Tony looking like Jack Lemmon, hilarious stuff!

However, with a saga of never ending production hell to rival the Lord of the Rings trilogy itself, J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is quickly trying to take the crown of the most “unfilmable.”  It’s been three years since director Peter Jackson announced his plans to film a prequel to his Lord of the Rings trilogy and since that brief moment of nerd happiness, it’s been all downhill.  Arguments with the studio, New Line, led to lawsuits from both Jackson and the Tolkien family, then MGM (who was in on the distribution deal) ran into major financial woes casting a shadow on the production.  More recently, acclaimed director Guillermo Del Toro dropped out after two years of work on the movie.  And now, with Jackson agreeing to helm the project himself and things looking up, The International Federation of Actors and the Screen Actors Guild are encouraging actors to stay away from the movie because of some non-union complaints from a local New Zealand guild.  SAG was quick to remind its members that work on this film is in violation of their bylaws and could result in expulsion.  And by “expulsion” and “members” they are pointing the finger at who, Cate Blanchett?  Ian McKellen?  yeah, I see that happening.

Jackson has some colorful comments about the moves from the unions and so far the studios are defending him as well.  I don’t think anyone sees this as an entirely benevolent play from SAG etc., especially seeing as The Hobbit will be basically an identical production to the three LOTR movies already made in New Zealand.  There is a question of financial gain for the accusers to be sure and as long as the filmmakers can show they are acting in good faith and attempting to make the movie on a level playing field, I don’t see how any of this will derail production at this time.

The problem I have with this move from SAG is that it is a little late to the game.  This isn’t a move to create better working environments in New Zealand, its a play against runaway production, a problem that actor’s unions have overlooked for decades because frankly, it doesn’t generally affect their bottom line.  Runaway production hits the pockets of below the line talent and craftsmen, people who can’t move from state to state or country to country to work.  Actors can do just that, so why all of a sudden are groups like SAG and IFA interested?  Possibly because they see a weakness they can exploit with The Hobbit’s troubled beginnings?  Who knows, but I don’t think Jackson’s accusations of “power grabbing” are that far off.  This is Hollywood politics taken to the Kiwis and hopefully, it won’t keep what is sure to be a great movie away from the fans who love Tolkien’s work so dearly.

The 37th Annual Telluride Festival offered a wealth of entertaining films that made the 3-day event more than worth it. From Black Swan to Tabloid, the vast array of films featured at the festival exceeded our expectations. For those of you unable to attend, we decided to create a top ten list of our favorites. Hope you enjoy and let us know what you think in the comment section!

1: Incendies

Extraordinary film about the Lebanese civil war and a mother’s last wishes.

2. Of Gods and Men

Cistercian French monks in Algeria stand up for their beliefs when confronted by fundamentalists.

3.Black Swan

A thriller where Natalie Portman melts down becoming the lead in Swan Lake and her rivalry with a possible competitor for her spot.

4. Oka! Amerikee

An eccentric American, Louis Sarno, lived amongst and recorded Pygmies music in the Congo and Western Africa.

5. Tabloid

The director of The Thin Blue Line and the Oscar-winning The Fog of War tells the true story of a former Miss Wyoming whose quest for one “true love” led her across the globe and into the tabloids.

6. Tamara Drewe

An urban girl with returns to her small hometown to take care of some family real estate and runs into (or causes) heaps of trouble.

7. Biutiful

A man struggles with a his existence as he attempts to reconcile with a past love and secure a future for his children as he senses his own mortality coming to an end.

8. Inside Job

Who caused the economic collapse and how.

9. Le Quattro Volte

An Italian visual poem of changing seasons.

10. Precious Life

A Palestinian gives birth in Israel and creates a tiny peace.

(Photo Via: Filmlinc)

The spiritual leader of the group is Ed Harris, as “Mister Smith,” a taciturn and enigmatic self-proclaimed survivor who is inspired by Janusz’ determination to escape and his competency in the wilderness. As they prepare to escape, stockpiling food and materials, they are joined by an odd army, each from a different country and linguistic group, all united by their nearly flawless command of English, except for Valka (Colin Farrell), a member of the prison-ruling Bratva who has run up a lethal debt gambling for cigarettes, speaks with a strong Russian accent.

The group escapes through the Siberian woods, suffering some casualties, and makes their way through the rugged, frigid terrain to the edge of Lake Baikal, where they encounter the enigmatic Irena (Saoirse Ronan), a young girl who has apparently made her way into the wilderness an unknown distance alone, having escaped a collective farm.

It is through her questioning that we learn the painful back stories of each of the surviving characters, each having suffered the loss of family or friends or having been betrayed by them. Together they struggle through the landscape overcoming obstacle after obstacle until they cross the border into Mongolia, only to discover that it is home not only to the even more unforgiving Gobi desert, but also to Communism.

Determined to escape not only Russia, but also Communism, they vow to continue on to India. The geography becomes a bit difficult to follow as they find a heretofore unknown vestige of the Great Wall of China at the equally unexpected shared corner of Mongolia, China, and Nepal.

While the story follows a fairly familiar “great escape” format, and despite some liberties taken with strict adherence to reasonable facts, it is a beautiful movie that is fun to watch. The acting and character development is compelling and engaging, particularly Ed Harris and Jim Sturges, though Colin Farrel’s bad boy is the most entertaining and suits him well.

I recommend it.

One such movie is Kandahar Break, a new independent film written and directed by David Whitney, which drops you into the stark landscape of Afghanistan — forbidding, dry, lonely, and frightening — a place that, pre 9/11, very few of you would have been able to find quickly on a world map. For me, as a kid many years ago, Afghanistan was an almost mythical place mentioned in passing within the pages of one of my most beloved books, a volume of the complete Sherlock Holmes stories. In A Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson informed me that he was wounded by a “Jezail bullet” at “the fatal battle of Maiwand,” a village not far from Kandahar. Now, of course, none of us any longer has the luxury of thinking of Afghanistan as a mythical place. Too many of our brethren have died there.

The main character in Kandahar Break, the tough but lovesick Richard Lee, played by Shaun Dooley, is a member of a team of British engineers who, in 1999, are trying to find and destroy land mines that spot the dangerous countryside. He’s working for the Taliban, which creates a big problem for him and a female Afghan interpreter named Jamilah with whom he has fallen in love. The local Taliban leader wants to replace her with a male interpreter.

It would be cruel of me to reveal more of the tightly woven plot, but I can say that every moment of this film is infused with edge-of-your-seat tension; and the small, short, violent skirmishes invoke a heart-pounding sense of the terrifying confusion that one must feel in battle. Kandahar Break is a compact thriller; the plot is not difficult to follow, so you won’t be spending a lot of time asking yourself what the heck is going on. Instead you’ll be lured out of the safe complacency of your comfortable living room and plunged emotionally into this strange place called Afghanistan that you should know so much more about.

Kandahar Break will be released on DVD by Peace Arch Entertainment on September 21, 2010.

Joe, played expertly by the talented actor DJ Qualls, sees himself as a failure, “a meaningless stain smacked against the birth wall we call society,” and it is no wonder why. The highest he has gone in life is to be a janitor at a greasy hamburger joint; and to compound his misery, his boss is a sadistic browbeater of near epic proportion. Bossman Mr. Crolick goes so far as to shove Joe’s arm elbow-deep into a filthy toilet in order to instruct him how to thoroughly perform his duty. But is Crolick (William Sadler in an oddly comic turn), who flaunts his superiority over Joe so relentlessly, really as different from Joe as he thinks he is? A curious subplot addresses that question.

As a prelude to his planned personal “days of rage,” Joe spends twenty minutes on the Internet to find potential allies in murder: Middle Eastern gun merchants. But even they belittle Joe, as they laugh at him after ordering him to drop his pants to ensure that he is not already armed. He has only about $140, so the bad guys sell him “a junior gun for a junior man.” Watching Joe seethe over every insult is not easy, for he reminds us of every slight we have ever been slapped with by those who consider themselves our betters.

Joe is so insecure and frustrated, he will pick up and exaggerate every word and even every look pointed his way. Stephanie, played by Nikki Reed in a strong and emotional performance, makes the mistake of giving Joe an unintentional come-hither glance. Before too long, he has her tied up in a motel bathtub. Joe is not psychotic, but damaged and desperate and, he believes, at the end of his rope. His fantasy is to go Scarface (yes, he has a poster in his room at his parents’ home) at the burger joint. As he and Stephanie — will she or will she not succumb to Stockholm syndrome? — converse and commiserate at the motel, Joe starts to reevaluate the length of his emotional and psychological rope.

The writing in Last Day of Summer is sometimes a bit too much over the top, probably to take the edge off such a tough situation; but overall, director Vlad Yudin’s feature film debut is a decent little indie movie, worth watching at least to enjoy the strong acting of DJ Qualls and Nikki Reed.

The most breathless pre-release coverage of the movie concerns a sex scene between Natalie and her co-star Mila Kunis that was anticipated to be borderline X-rated. In the version I saw screened at the Telluride Film Festival as a sneak preview it was indeed extremely erotic but in no way x-rated. Though Mila unambiguously goes down on Natalie, the footage is fairly tasteful and there’s not even a nipple exposed (the scene is hotter than Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried’s makeout in last year’s Jennifer’s Body). There are also two fairly explicit solo masturbation scenes that seem to take a cue from Marianna Beck and Jack Hafferkamp’s 2004 film (the first one is cut short in a very funny way that I won’t spoil).

The second most prevalent rumor surrounding this film is the Oscar buzz emanating from the Venice Festival where Black Swan’s official premiere was held (Telluride is considered an industry event, films that get their first public screening in Telluride often later “premiere” at Venice or Toronto). Natalie’s performance is, indeed, worthy of Oscar consideration. Her character disintegrates under the tearing forces of trying to be perfect in her role, her Mommie Dearest mother, and the perhaps imagined jealous spite of the other dancers in her company. She responds to the horror in her mind horribly but remains believable and even sympathetic as she simultaneously breaks free of her inhibitions while breaking her mind.

Mila Kunis turns in a strong performance as Lily, the dancer “from San Francisco.” She is a bit of a caricature: tattooed, sexually liberated, perhaps bisexual, a drug user, with natural talent but lacking precision and discipline. She becomes the understudy, of course, for Nina and may be trying to destroy her or maybe she is just trying to help her.

Winona Ryder plays the outgoing star of the company who has aged past her ability to draw crowds. She, too, turns in an excellent performance though her character’s range is limited to hysteria. Barbara Hershey is also remarkable as Natalie’s Mommy Dearest, both aggressively pushing her daughter to have the career she didn’t (stereotypically having given up her career to have her daughter) and simultaneously growing (perhaps) insanely jealous.

The last controversy is the somewhat over-the-top horror elements that make it a little harder to take seriously as an art film. As Nina loses her mind the world she sees becomes more and more fantastical and terrifying. The audience experiences her world through her eyes and fantastical elements blur the line between the mind games being played by the company director (Vincent Cassel), her mother, and her costars and the games her own mind is playing with her. I found the fantastical elements effective and appropriate to the story, but the camera work leaned too much on standard horror tropes and ended up being at times unintentionally funny.

Highly Recommended!

The movie is a dramatization of the 1996 kidnapping and assassination of
the monks of Tibhirine, a French Trappist monastery in the Atlas
mountains of Algeria during the Algerian civil war. The conflict
between Islamic fundamentalists in Algeria and more moderate Muslims
started to boil over, and foreign corporate entities and remnants of
French colonial rule became targets.

News of atrocities committed against foreigners reached the monks and
forced them to decide between staying true to their mission and facing
likely death or fleeing the country.

The government of Algeria, the Algerian military, and people aware of
their plight urged them to leave, but the local population they had
served for decades urged the to stay. The monks ran a small infirmary,
the only medical care in the region, which made them essential to the
locals and soon nonjudgmental if not entirely willing allies of the
local insurgents–an uneasy alliance that turned the military against
them as well.

Historically, we know 6 of 8 monks in the monastery and a visitor from
the Trappist order were kidnapped, held for two months, and then
beheaded. The movie takes us through the almost unbearable tension that
built between the murder on the 14th of December, 1993 of 12 Christian
Croatian construction workers near the Monastery and the abduction on
the night of the 26th of March, 1996.

The movie leaves ambiguous the final fate of the monks in deference to
the controversy surrounding their actual fates. While it is clear they
were abducted by jihads, and they were beheaded, there is some
controversy as to whether the Algerian army may have killed them by
mistake while strafing a camp, and then covered the story up with the
beheading.

Each of the actors put in a powerful and compelling performance, but
Michael Lonsdale stood out as Luke Dochia, the doctor who had, in real
life, been in the monastery for 50 years, and was 82 at the time of the
abduction. Lionsdale and some of the other actors went on retreats to
prepare for their roles, learning the routines and liturgies of the
order first hand.

Highly recommended.

Chico and Rita is the story of Chico, a gifted pianist in Cuba in the
late 40s who is playing small clubs and hoping to enter a contest. He
and his agent spy the beautiful and talented Rita singing at a club and
so begins a pursuit that lasts 50 years from Cuba to New York to
Hollywood, Paris and Las Vegas.

The animation is stylish and fun to watch. Trueba made a significant
effort to be accurate to the period, going so far as visiting Cuba and
finding photographic records of every street that were taken in the
1950s to guide street repairs. But the music is the guiding force of
the movie and includes work by Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Nat
King Cole.

Dramatically, the arc of the story was somewhat predictable and, not to
be too harsh, but a bit Disney-like in the predictable estrangements by
circumstances of the heart, by geography, by the machinations of
villains, by careers, by tragic misunderstandings, by politics and
revolution.

It was fun to watch: enjoyable, touching, and aurally enchanting; but
neither challenging nor revelatory.

William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence in The Karate Kid