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CLOUD ATLAS: Lana Wachowsky & Tom Tykwer & Andy Wachowsky: OCT 26

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Aloysius J. Gleek:

Aloysius J. Gleek:





http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-wachowskis-cloud-atlas-toronto-20120909,0,3034761.story



Toronto International Film Festival
Wachowskis open up
their 'Cloud Atlas' at last
By Mark Olsen
September 9, 2012, 11:10 a.m.


Doona Bae and Jim Sturgess in "Cloud Atlas." (from the Toronto International Film Festival)


TORONTO -- “Cloud Atlas,” among the most anticipated films of the season, had its world premiere on Saturday night at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. It's directed by the trio of Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer and Andy Wachowski, who wrote the adaptation of the popular 2004 David Mitchell novel.

As the festival’s Cameron Bailey noted in introducing the filmmakers, many declared the novel un-adaptable for the screen, in essence too big, too sprawling, too epic to be harnessed into a single movie. The story traverses six story lines that jump across some 500 years: a sailing ship returning from the Pacific Islands in 1849, a composer in pre-WWII Britain, San Francisco in 1975, the present day, the futuristic 2144 and some unspecified future when things have become a mixture of the primitive and the high-tech.

When the filmmakers took the stage, Andy Wachowski began by saying, “Hello, citizens” before noting, “We’ve never really introduced one of our films before so we weren’t sure quite how to do it. I said to go with – behold!”

Lana Wachowski balked at speaking next, saying, “I’m not ready,” allowing Tykwer to make a few remarks. Then Lana Wachowski stepped to the microphone and said, “The movie speaks a lot about human courage, and the producers obviously had a lot of courage, or stupidness, to get this thing produced.”

She said that the evening was “like in a dream, I can’t believe we’re actually standing here,” adding: “It’s quite an experimental film in many ways.”

In addition to its time-skipping structure, the film's main conceit is to have the same actors appear in multiple roles across the different scenarios, done up in a variety of false noses, wigs and elaborate makeup to alter and at times hide their appearance. The main cast was all there, including Keith David, James D’Arcy, Ben Whishaw, Doona Bae, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry and Tom Hanks. When Hanks came onto the stage, he ran down the line of talent bumping fists with everyone as a ballplayer would before the big game.

The end credits of the film show each actor in all of his or her various roles. The audience rose to its feet for an ovation that lasted through the entire cast roll and well beyond.

Early response from the town hall of Twitter was wildly divided on “Cloud Atlas,” with some declaring it “an intense three-hour mental workout with big emotional payoff,” “the most ambitious film I’ve ever seen” or a “deft interweaving of six stories and sincere as all get out,” while others felt it was a “symphonic fiasco of artistry and tackiness,” “five or six movies interrupting each other” or just plain “unbearable.”

Aloysius J. Gleek:

http://www.clickonline.com/movies/review--cloud-atlas/13209/



Review
Cloud Atlas
Epic. Masterful. Brilliant.

By Peter Nelis
9 September, 2012




Having not read David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas  (it's in the pile just waiting to be read, I swear), I was completely and utterly ignorant as to what to expect from Lana and Andy Wachowski's big screen adaptation, also directed alongside co-composer Tom Tywker. It wasn't until the first trailer hit our screens earlier this summer that my interest was really piqued. Was it a science fiction movie? Was it a drama? Was it an action flick? It was tough to tell, but one thing's for sure it certainly looked epic.

Fast forward to this year's TIFF and I found myself in a packed theatre bustling with excitement and expectation for the movie, which was fast becoming one of the most talked about movies on the massive TIFF timetable. Still not entirely sure what I was letting myself in for, aside from knowing that the movie had a mammoth 164 minute running time, I approached with a completely open mind.

As I have since learned from those who have read the book, Cloud Atlas  is something of a divisive beast. There are those who love the way it meanders around multiple stories, while others see lack of focus and too many liberties taken by Mitchell, when it comes to the big screen version, practically everything was a delight.

For those of you still unaware of the general idea of Cloud Atlas,  it centres around the idea that we and our loved ones are all connected, in this life, lives that have come before and lives that have yet to be lived. Certainly, it's quite heavy material to ponder, but the way it plays out is nothing short of masterful.

With stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon and Doona Bae all playing multiple roles across the various stories, it can be quite a jarring experience at first. The tales unwind, initially at least, as wholly independent narratives. The faces, the recognizable ones at least, are familiar, but each of the settings, the characters and the time periods vary wildly. From the 1800s through to the distant future, Cloud Atlas  flits between each story seemingly at random, building towards numerous peaks, dipping into pensive troughs and even going so far as to provide us with the occasional dash of humour (mostly courtesy of Broadbent's Timothy Cavendish) without ever feeling laboured.

This in itself is a feat worthy of substantial praise, as there are few movies of close to three hours in length that haven't once had me checking how long was left during more pedestrian moments. It's a testament to the strength of the source material that the directorial trio had to work with that things never for a moment start to grate, while the initially confusing cuts between the different stories and time periods seamlessly start to come together almost effortlessly, building subtle connections at first, before offering enough to connect the remaining dots in the run up to the finale.

Each story has its own distinct flavour, with different stars taking leads here, supporting roles there or cameo appearances elsewhere. There are fantastic turns from Sturgess as Adam Ewing, Hanks as Zachry Bailey, Berry as Luisa Rey and Meronym, Weaving as a distinctly Agent Smith-esque Bill Smoke and the ridiculously scary (you'll need to see it) Nurse Noakes and Bae as Sonmi-451, while Grant and Sarandon have some meaningful peripheral roles that, while not taxing their thespian abilities all that much, still add quite bit to the overall product.

With so many actors playing multiple roles, it was always going to be important that the prosthetics department was up to the task of giving each character a unique look, however things weren't the raging success that they could have been. This is particularly noticeable in the 2144 version of Seoul, where distinctly un-Asian actors are given distinctly strange looking Asian facelifts that don't particularly work. The same is evident when Berry takes the role of a white woman, and Bae a full-blooded American.

Thankfully, there's not quite enough there to cause any major problems for the audience beyond a couple of disbelieving scowls, or amused titters here and there, for Cloud Atlas  very much stands on the strength of its writing, performances and direction.

The action scenes, of which there are a few, are tastefully executed, with just the right emphasis on impactful graphic violence there to shock the audience. Those easily offended may have a bit to get up in arms about here, with the C word and the N word making a few appearances, however without giving too much away about where and when they feature, we found their inclusions played a more important role to the overall narrative than merely being there for shock value.

The comedy moments are delightfully ridiculous, with Broadbent's Cavendish centred parts taking the bulk of the responsibilities on that front, while the overall feeling crafted is one that will tug at the heart strings, get the blood pumping and excite the mind.

Clichéd and all as it may sound, Cloud Atlas  is a picture that genuinely has all the bases covered. It takes a pinch of everything, mixes it with a dash of everything else, throws in some masterful performances, great writing, beautiful scenery and still manages to feel cohesive at all times.

Many will disagree, but for my money it's little short of a masterpiece; three hours of brilliance with very few missteps. Like the movie itself, five stars just isn’t enough.


SCORE:

Aloysius J. Gleek:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/toronto-2012-cloud-atlas-tom-hanks-halle-berry-jim-broadbent-wachowski-tom-tykwer-368925





Toronto 2012:
'Cloud Atlas' Earns Lengthy
Standing Ovation,
But Are Oscars in the Cards?
The highly-anticipated film by the Wachowski Siblings
and Tom Tykwer, which features a massive ensemble
cast, will open nationwide on Oct. 26

by Scott Feinberg
8:28 AM PDT 9/9/2012






TORONTO -- Cloud Atlas,  a mind-blowing film adapted from David Mitchell's best-selling 2004 novel and directed by Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski (the siblings responsible for The Matrix  films) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run ), had its highly-anticipated world premiere last night at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, which will be released theatrically by Warner Bros. on Oct. 26, was greeted with a loud and lengthy standing ovation throughout the portion of its credits that recognized the filmmakers and the members of the film's large ensemble cast, who each played multiple roles in multiple eras in the time-traveling film (and virtually all of whom were in attendance). They include Oscar winners Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Jim Broadbent, plus Hugh Grant, James D'Arcy, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Keith David, Xun Zhou and Doona Bae.

Any film that attempted to tackle Mitchell's 500-plus page tome -- a meditation on karma, past lives, and freedom that jumps across the centuries (past, present, and Twilight Zone -ish future) and genres (drama, comedy, sci-fi, and everything inbetween) -- would inherently be ambitious and daring. This one is that, to the extreme. It took years to come together. It was made on a budget of over $100 million, a portion of which was furnished by Warner Bros., but most of which was raised independently (making it the most expensive indie film of all-time). And it comes only six years after a similarly-structured film with a big budget, Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain  (2006), face-planted at the box-office. In Hollywood, people rarely venture into territory on which others have failed before, but -- as chronicled in a recent artlcle in The New Yorker  -- there was no stopping these filmmakers after they encountered Mitchell's book.
 
There are positive and negative effects of jumping back-and-forth between an 1849 sea voyage, 1936 Cambridge, 1970s San Francisco, 2012 London, 2144 "Neo Seoul," and the 2300s. On the former count, it was very appealing to the actors to get to play so many different parts within a single film, and to the makeup artists who transformed them for each, changing their ages, races, and even genders (which is particularly interesting because, in real-life, Lana was, until recently, Larry).
 
On the latter side of things, however, it is headache-inducing to try to keep up with everything that's going on in each storyline, and, even if one can, it is hard to get terribly invested in any one of them because it's always usually just a matter of a few minutes before it is set aside for another one. (Then again, this might be the first film perfectly tailor-made for the ADD generation -- or merely the latest for those who partake in mind-altering recreational habits.)
 
Ultimately, connections between these stories, which initially seemed random and unrelated, become apparent. Without spoiling anything for a first-time viewer, I can say that thematically, at least, they are each about controlling and being controlled, and about the desire for freedom that rests in every soul.
 
Like The Matrix,  this film's points are made with stunning visuals (though none as striking as the slow-mo bullets scenes in that film) and laugh-out-loud humor ("Official cause of accident: pussy," "You won't believe what people will pay to luck up their parents," and even a Soylent Green reference), if also a bit of politics (it goes after Big Oil, highlights the dangers of nuclear power, and subtly tweaks the media and Israel -- "the press is blaming the PLO") and heavy-handed philosophy ("All boundaries are conventions waiting to be transcended... if only one can conceive of doing so," "The weak are meat and the strong do eat," "From womb to tomb we are bound by others," "A single drop in an ocean? What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?").
 
I can't say that I loved the sum of its parts, but I was still blown away by many of the parts themselves -- the performances (although it's hard to single any one or two people out when everyone had so much to do), the editing (by master juggler Alexander Berner), art direction/production design (who must have felt like they were responsible for many movies), visual effects (coordinated by a team of over 100 people), especially the makeup (anyone that can make Hanks look like himself in Castaway,  Mike Myers in Austin Powers,  Russell Crowe in Gladiator,  and Elton John, all in one film, deserves heaps of praise). I suspect that Oscar voters will feel similarly.

Aloysius J. Gleek:




http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/09/09/toronto-film-festival-cloud-atlas-premiere-with-halle-berry-tom-hanks-wows-crowd-cast-directors-get-standing-ovation/


Toronto Film Festival:
'Cloud Atlas' premiere lands
an emotional standing ovation
for cast, including
Halle Berry, Tom Hanks

Solvej Schou
Sep 9 2012 01:42 AM ET




How many new movies are truly epic these days? The kind of films that literally span the world: generations, time, distance, people?
 
Saturday night’s packed Cloud Atlas  premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival proved the nail-bitingly anticipated film — directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run ) and Lana and Andy Wachowski (The Matrix ) and based on David Mitchell’s novel — to be just that: utterly, wonderfully epic. After the final credits rolled, following a dense, trippy, funny, fierce visual ride through 500 years, the crowd not only clapped and cheered, they stood up one by one and gave a 10-minute standing ovation to the movie’s cast and crew, facing them head on. It was the kind of moment that felt, in the scheme of a festival, epic.
 
Sci-fi and realistic, simple and sprawling, clocking in at close to three hours, the movie follows multiple story lines and characters played by a thick pack of actors, including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, and many more. Almost every actor in the film plays three to six different characters within an almost mind-exploding weave of locales, from the Pacific Islands in 1849 to San Francisco in 1973, 2012 London, apocalyptic Korea in 2144, and a primal, futuristic society in a place called Big Isle years beyond that. Berry, who looks forever young, takes on six different roles, from a saucy, fluffy-haired journalist in the ’70s to an almost unrecognizable light-eyed British wife and an outsider with electrode-looking attachments snaking through her face, with the help of excellent makeup.
 
The premiere itself felt like one big emotional party, given the more than a dozen cast members in attendance. Lana Wachowski, previously Larry, was giddy and teary on stage, introducing the movie with her brother and Tykwer. She looked straight out of Run Lola Run,  with pink and red dread locks, wearing a black dress and tights. Berry and Sarandon both went masculine-feminine in fitted pants suits (Berry’s patterned purple, and Sarandon’s blue). Other celebrities even made sure to snag prime seats to the premiere, including Bryan Cranston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (fresh off his Toronto Looper  premiere on Thursday), and Julie Benz.
 
“We’ve never really introduced this film before. I thought to go with ‘BEHOLD,’” joked Andy Wachowski to the crowd. Added his sister, who said it took years to get funding for what she called an “experimental” film, “The movie really speaks to human courage. … The reason we’re here is because of the courage and talent of this unbelievable cast.”
 
The crowd especially loved Hanks and Broadbent, who would squint his face into a scowl as composer Vivian Ayrs in pre World War II England, then get the most laughs as spunky, sly present day Timothy Cavendish, grinning like a loopy chipmunk, with his villainous brother played by Grant, whose prosthetic jowls resembled a fleshy blowfish. Another Grant part, as the kind of dirt, blood, and war-paint covered warrior you don’t want to meet in a dark forest, will shock some people. Silent, but deadly.
 
Hanks threw his acting weight around with the most relish fans have seen in a while. Sweaty and red-nosed as a greedy doctor in the 1800s, buff and covered with miniature face markings as hallucination-prone Zachry in the future, and best as totally ballsy, violent, head-shaved Brit writer Dermot Hoggins. The audience cracked up when normally demure Hanks appeared as Hoggins on-screen. Hello Oscar nomination?
 
When fans finally returned their love of the movie with that long standing ovation, the actors and directors became visibly overwhelmed. Sarandon grabbed Andy Wachowski in an enormous hug. James D’Arcy started to tear up, and Doona Bae — the Korean actress whose big, black eyes and striking heart-shaped face encompass one of the movie’s most memorable characters, a revolutionary-in-the-making in futuristic Korea (very Matrix -y) — glided out of the theater with a trail of admirers behind her.

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