mr. turner
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NYFF 2014: Brush Life – ‘Mr. Turner’
There’s an expansiveness to the emotionality of Spall’s performance, similar again to his paintings. His gruff, guttural line readings, his carefully naturalistic mannerisms and idiosyncrasies, and the tears he sheds are a work of art in and of themselves, allowing Leigh and Spall to create a portrait of a man that does seem to elevate the art in some way. Leigh isn’t bent on building up Turner, tearing him down, and building him up again as so many biopics are prone to do; J.M.W Turner just is. Flawed, powerful, generous, and one hell of an artist. More
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NYFF 2014: ‘Mr. Turner’ a visually sleek and emotionally gruff reflection on an artist’s life
Suffused with the landscapes that the famed British painter J.M.W Turner admired and translated into legend, director Mike Leigh’s newest film hints at the inner life of the man behind the accomplishments but stops well short of explicating his eccentric actions. Unable to articulate his feelings and more often than not treating the people around him with callous indifference, it’s obvious that Leigh’s Turner has cultivated an environment of emptiness that has allowed him ample space to do exactly what he wants with his life. The silence is frequently richer than the dialogue, with the luscious scenery speaking more to the turmoil of his mind than he can adequately express to those who want to be close to him. Mr. Turner tests one’s patience as we crawl through the waning years of the man’s life, but Spall’s offbeat performance and the gorgeous backdrops immerse the viewer just enough to offset the sparsity of the artist’s stunted emotional intelligence. More
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The Hype Cycle: Toronto, Telluride and Venice Oscar buzz (Part 2)
The Hype Cycle is News Editor Brian Welk’s roundup of industry news, reviews and predictions of everything Oscar, boiled down into weekly power rankings of the buzziest and most likely contenders in this year’s awards season. This article is Part 2 of this week’s Hype Cycle column. Read Part 1 from yesterday. 7. Foxcatcher and […] More
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‘Mr. Turner’, the new film from Mike Leigh, gets a US trailer
With a filmography that includes Vera Drake and Happy-Go-Lucky, filmmaker Mike Leigh has seen his profile grow over the last decade, despite his last feature film being released in theatres in 2010. His newest feature, however, is now on the horizon, having already played at the Cannes and Telluride film festivals, and set to play […] More
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The Telluride Film Festival announces its 2014 line-up
As per tradition, the Telluride Film Festival announced its line-up today, just one day before it kicks off. Here is a brief overview of the programming: The 41st Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following 25 new feature films to play in its main program: • THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT (d. Martin Scorsese, David […] More
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Cannes 2014: Mike Leigh’s ‘Mr. Turner’ a witty portrait of a landscape painter
Timothy Spall depicts the revered J.M.W. Turner as a bumbling, grumbling, disgusting genius in Mike Leigh’s new historical biopic Mr. Turner. With Dickensian villainy spewing through his constant frown and spells of decided grunts, it may appear as if the legendary Turner is appalling and hard to relate to. In fact, many of his behaviors show a solid dedication to his art (and a disconnect to the world at large) as he visits a brothel for curvy female subjects and surveys the docks for his consistent stream of maritime landscapes. Yet Leigh equips Spall with an amiable humor, enough so to make him a creative curiosity. Our attention to his peculiar faults and eccentricities are needed as the figure is used to describe the role of art, how we see it, and how we may fall in love with it. More