notes from the road

i'm one fucking happy movie geek. the long-delayed film version of cormac mccarthy's novel the road is officially slated to open this fall, 10/16/09, the same day the spike jonze version of maurice sendak's beloved children's' book where the wild things are opens. i rarely get amped for new flicks, not because i think most new films are shit, but because all films soon find their way to dvd. but there are a few movies that i simply get all goose-pimply about and can't hardly wait to see.

so october 16, 2009 will be like christmas come early. i've no idea how the film version of sendak's book will turn out but according to some lucky bastard at esquire magazine who has already seen the road and has written a piece on why he thinks it is the best film of 2009. his only complaint are the trailers that were cut to sell the movie. the trailers begin with some stock footage of cataclysmic events and a newscast about an impending natural disaster. this sets up an expectation of a kind of post-apocalyptic blockbuster where the audience will expect huge set pieces catering to our collective desire to see shit get blowed up on the big screen and a performance by the principals of a kind of bruce willis a la die hard movies bravado and cockiness. all of which are absent from the book. the genius of mccarthy is that he shows us a dead world as it is with no explanation on how it got that way thus allowing a greater empathy with the struggles of the father and son. the mysteries of ontology and teleology played on a small scale of a great human love. and according to the critic who already seen the film the teaser trailer does a disservice to the haunting gorgeousness of the movie. for the movie is most definitely not a post-apocalyptic action-adventure via the mad max franchise. this is a great love story set at the end of our tenure on earth.

i'm one happy film geek, indeed, because tonight i fire up the laptop and find the teaser trailer was just released today. follow this link here to watch it and you can see that the esquire critic was absolutely correct in his assessment of the trailer. be that as it may, the film stars viggo mortensen as the man and possesses a killer score by nick cave. i'm ready to be blown away.