Blog Posts by Jonathan Crow

(Photo: Alcon Entertainment)The movie "Dolphin Tale" is based on a true story about a dolphin that survives a horrific accident thanks to the help of a small band of dedicated scientists. Though the poster for the film includes the likes of Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, and Morgan Freeman, the true star of the flick is Winter the dolphin, who is playing herself in the movie.

Back in the winter of 2005 when Winter was a mere three months old, she became entangled in a crab trap. A rope from the trap became wrapped around her tail and all of her efforts to escape just made the injuries worse. Normally, this would have been the end of Winter -- thousands of dolphins die every year in the same way — but she was lucky. Winter was discovered by a fisherman and eventually transported to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. There marine biologists were forced to remove the mangled tail. They also named her Winter for the season when she was discovered.

The odds of survival for a dolphin with a missing tail are very low.

Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn (Photo: FilmDistrict)"I am a fetish filmmaker," said Nicolas Winding Refn, director of this week's movie "Drive." "I just make films based on what I like to see, on what arouses me, and not try to analyze them, because if I do, then I can destroy it."

"Drive" certainly feels like a fetish movie, and I mean that in the best possible way. The whole movie is sleek, heightened, and charged with something akin to eroticism, from the inscrutable expression on Ryan Gosling's face to the gleaming surfaces of his car; from the languorous tableaux of nocturnal Los Angeles to the shot of Albert Brook stabbing some hapless gangster in the eye with a fork.

Though Ryan Gosling's stoic visage appears on the poster, the true star of this flick is Refn. The movie's opening sequence shows Gosling's character -- he doesn't have a name in the film aside from monikers like "driver" and "kid" -- plays getaway driver for a pair of nameless thieves. The virtuosity that he displays evading the cops -- hiding under a bridge here, bolting into a parking structure there -- is matched by Refn's virtuosity behind the camera. In an age when actions scenes have devolved into incoherent camerawork strung together by spastic editing over a blaring soundtrack, the economy Refn uses here is remarkable. "Drive" might just be the best-directed movie you're going to see this year.

Henry Hopper (Photo: Dominique Charriau/Wireimage.com)Henry Hopper, son of Dennis Hopper, stars in Gus Van Sant's latest movie, "Restless." This is his first film, though you wouldn't know it based on his performance. He has the intensity, wildness, and vulnerably that is reminiscent of, well, a pre-"Easy Rider" Dennis Hopper. He has that rare ability to connect with the camera.

Yet, despite his talent, pedigree (his mother is actress Katherine LaNasa), and movie-star good looks, the 21-year-old was initially reluctant to enter the family business.

"I resisted being an actor for some time," Henry Hopper told a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival.

"Restless" (Photo: Sony Pictures Classics)Gus Van Sant has had a peculiar cinematic career. In the late '80s and early '90s, he made his name with a series of indie movies such as "Mala Noche," "Drugstore Cowboy" and "My Own Private Idaho." They were groundbreaking tales of hustlers and drug addicts on the gritty down-and-out of side of Portland Oregon, but told with a sense of whimsy and playfulness.

With the huge critical and commercial success of "Idaho," Van Sant was soon wooed by Hollywood. His 1997 movie "Good Will Hunting" got him his first nomination for an Oscar. Instead of following up this success with something that would solidify his standing as an A-list director though, Van Sant made one of the most curious studio flicks in Hollywood history: a shot-by-shot remake of Hitchcock's classic "Psycho." The end product baffled audiences and was largely panned by critics. It felt more like an expensive art project.

(Photo: Andrew Wallace/Reuters)What happened on 9/11, as they say, affected everyone. My 9/11 happened far from the smoke and rubble in Manhattan. Instead, I was at the Toronto Film Festival. On a normal year, the place transforms into a concentrated version of Hollywood press machine, with all its hype, hubris, and self-regard. That day, though, the wheels came off. Movies suddenly didn't seem all that important.

'Gainsbourg' (Photo: Music Box Films)It's hard to find an equivalent to French singer/songwriter/provocateur Serge Gainsbourg in American society -- he's part Bob Dylan, part Dean Martin, and part Johnny Rotten.  He managed to get a teen pop star to sing a double-entendre-laden song about lollipops; he got a pair of international movie stars to orgasmically moan for two versions of the song "Je t'aime… moi non plus"; and sang a duet with his daughter about incest. And yet when he died in 1991, President Francois Mitterrand described Gainsbourg  as "our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire." The French recall his passing of a heart attack in the same way Americans might recall Kurt Cobain's or John Lennon's; it was a moment of national mourning.

Twenty years later, Serge Gainsbourg seems to be going through something of a renaissance. He had a tribute show at the Hollywood Bowl last month, featuring the likes of Beck and Sean Lennon.  A documentary called "Gainsbourg and His Girls" -- which centers around Gainsbourg, who was more charismatic than handsome, and his numerous gorgeous lovers, including Brigitte Bardot -- is making the rounds on the film festival circuit. And, now, Joann Sfar's surreal biopic, "Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life," hits the silver screen in the States.

'Circumstance' (Photo: Roadside Attractions)"What else could this film go through?" joked Iranian-American director Maryam Keshavarz. If current forecasts are correct, Hurricane Irene is set to slam into the East Coast the same weekend her movie, "Circumstance," is slated to open.

"We couldn't shoot in Iran. Then I was editing in Chile, we had an 8.8 earthquake. And now, after 25 years, there's like a hurricane hitting New York City," she said with a laugh.

Keshavarz talked to me while navigating Los Angeles traffic -- always a dicey proposition. But, then, she is not someone to shy away from risk: She shot her debut feature in a politically hostile part of the world; she managed to tick off the oppressive government of her ancestral homeland; and she faced down at least one natural disaster. In comparison, talking on the phone while driving down Wilshire Boulevard is a cinch.

"Martha Marcy May Marlene" was one of the certifiable breakout hits of this year's Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Best Director award. The movie centers on a lost young woman, Martha, who escapes from a cult into the seeming safety of her sister's upper-middle-class abode. Yet as the film progresses, it becomes less and less clear what is dream and what is reality just as it becomes less and less clear if Martha better adjusted to "normal" life at home or to life in the cult.

Watch for this movie to make a splash during the awards season. Critics have been heaping praise on the flick during its film fest run, singling out lead Elizabeth Olsen-- younger sister of Ashley and Mary-Kate -- in particular for her riveting, enigmatic performance. "Martha Marcy May Marlene" opens in limited release on October 21, but in the meantime, check out the exclusive motion poster.

See the exclusive theatrical poster reveal >>

Watch the trailer for "Martha Marcy May Marlene":