Films I am excited about

It’s of little reassurance to observers of civilizational decline that Transformers will make hundreds of millions of dollars this weekend. But there are good films on the way, and here are a few that have me moderately excited.

The first is based off one of the finest musicals ever written (which was, in fact, based off of a play, which was inspired by a movie). Nine stars Daniel Day-Lewis (what a coup!) as Guido Contini, a film director suffering a midlife crisis. Maury Yeston penned the music and lyrics — breathtaking from overture to final curtain — and filling the roles of the women in Guido’s life include everyone from Penelope Cruz to Dame Judi Dench (in the role of Lillian La Fleur, natch. If she pulls off the showstopping Folies Bergeres — as she no doubt will — she will need to make room on her mantle for yet another Academy Award).

My favorite recording of the show features theater legend (and part-time Bond villain) Jonathan Pryce and Elaine Paige, and can be found here. The original Tony-snagging cast (featuring the late Raul Julia) is here. And a 2003 revival starring Antonio Banderas, here.

The trailer for Nine is below: (note embedding has been disabled, and this will launch YouTube in a separate window)

The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of the best books I’ve read in quite some time, and it will finally see the big screen in August. The trailer leaves me frightfully cold. The book was both tender and gripping, a fine science fiction romance (as I described in detail here), and much deeper than the fairly insipid preview would lead us to believe. Still, if the movie is only half as good as the book, good things are in store.

And then there’s The Road.  This one has me nervous.  In my opinion (as well as the 2007 Pulitzer committee), this is Cormac McCarthy’s finest work; a relentlessly bleak and honest post-apocalyptic novel. The story of a father and son in search of hope “along the coast.” Like all McCarthy novels, the real magic is in the prose, so it remains to be seen whether the patient tale will work in multiplexes.  The movie trailer is mortifyingly bad.  As one commenter on a movie site wrote, “If Day After Tomorrow and I Am Legend fucked and had a kid, they would give birth to this trailer.” Still, I cannot imagine that the filmmakers read the book and took away from it… this…

(note: again, embedding was disabled by YouTube. The image below will open a new window.)

Finally, Roland Emmerich is once again bringing us the end of the world with 2012.  Since we’re not talking high culture, here is the preview in all its vulgar glory. I have high hopes for this one.

I can say with complete honesty that but for Watchmen, 2009 has left me cold. With six months to go, here’s hoping things end on a good note. As this is Hollywood we’re talking about, though, I am not optimistic.