the b-sidel Thursday, September 14, 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 3B Beware of darkness: Mainstream adult film is back By Jeffrey Bloomer Managing Editor The battle cry of the collective American audience is still echoing faintly amid the masses, and it looks as if Hollywood has finally taken the hint. This fall, a host of dark, intense, unabashedly adult-oriented movies will hit U.S. theaters. It started last weekend with "Hollywoodland" and continues Friday with Brian DePalma's "The Black Dahila" the once-storied director's rumored-to-be- OK incarnation of the James Ellroy novel. And the weekly picture for autumn is delightfully bleak across the board. Octo- ber may have no fewer than three new entries in three different horror franchises, but those same weekends are a who's-who of the industry's prize filmmakers: Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Nolan. What are these people doing in October? The films in question are all probable Oscar contenders - in a more typical sea- son they would roll out slowly closer to the holidays and into next year. But a series of apocalyptic reports from sources as diverse as the New York Times to Entertainment Weekly might have the answer: the citizen's arrest of box-office returns by the American public last year, which created what was touted as the industry's worst financial disas- ter since the advent of home video in the late '80s. Those days are long past with profits up appreciably from last year, but it appears as if it's finally beginning to affect the filmic landscape from years past. Where once we had industry-peddled flops like "Domino" and "Elizabethtown" we now have "Marie Antoinette" and "The Departed" in similar frames, two provocative, challenging mov- ies that can't depend on teenage boys for the majority of their profits. It's now common knowledge that the purported recess in 2005 was a lot of hot air: "The Passion of the Christ" inflated the box office out of nowhere in 2004, the popu- lar theory goes, and now we're supposedly "ahead" in 2006 - which may or may not directly correlate with the astonishing $417 million (and counting) box office for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." But the bottom line last year did indeed fall below expectations, and a common sentiment in the media (and among most adult moviego- ing circles) was that the lagging profits had more to do with the public's disillusionment with the American multiplex. High prices, long lines, cellphones and above all a per- ceived drop-off in quality were to blame, and popular Hollywood, never one to respect the intelligence of its audience, has apparently responded by doing just that. "Dahlia;'forexample,has been in develop- "I already told you. I'm sorry for 'Pearl Harbor.' " ment for years, with David Fincher attached plate and midsummer actioneers. A week to direct ina quiet return to his "Se7en" form later the same position will be filled by the and Mark Walhberg (suddenly hot property long-awaited ensemble wet dream "All the again) cast in a lead role. Now it will hit the- King's Men"; two weeks later it's the Leonar- aters with a legendary director and an elegant do DiCaprio-led "The Departed"; two more high-end marketing campaign that would weeks later it's "Marie Antoinette," "The customarily be reserved for teenage boiler- Prestige" and "Flags of Our Fathers" on the same weekend. It goes on like that through the end of the year. The forthcoming months are a celebratory parade of big-budget mov- ies for and by adults, opening nationwide on their first weekends, with the apparent hope of bringing back in big numbers an older See DARKNESS, page 7B AFFLECK Continued from page 18 have been, largely, as atrocious as their scripts (the wunder- kind behind "Deuce Bigelow," for instance). Even worse than bad movies, Ben has ended up making films that were finan- cial flops. This, of course, is Hollywood's cardinal sin. John Travolta once found himself in a similar situation. Post-"Grease," post-"Satur- day Night Fever," post-"Look Who's Talking Now." What does a dancing comic light- weight have to do for a little respect? Sleaze-out his long his hair, holster an automatic and part- ner up with Samuel L. Jackson for some Tarantino-style hard drugs and brutal violence, obvi- ously. With "Pulp Fiction," Travolta went straight from chasing around talking dogs with Kirstie Alley to stabbing Uma Thurman in the heart with a hypodermic needle. If you look up "comeback" in next year's Webster's, that may be its new definition. There's another sort of stig- matized career slump to avoid. At least Travolta wasn't labeled as box-office poison, like Katherine Hepburn. In Travol- ta's case, it was his range that was underrated; it was Hep- burn's appeal. Her own person was deemed unlikable, an ice queen too distant to relate to the public. Now, almost 70 years and a handful of classics later, Hepburn remains widely revered in our cultural subcon- scious for that same haughty self-assurance. So which is it for Affleck - is he underestimated by the critics, or simply misread by the public? How much of the bile spewed his way for the last few years has really been for acting chops, and not just his grossly overpublicized relation- ship with a certain Ms. Lopez? It'll be a while before we truly find out. Affleck only has one more film in the pipeline, presumably due to the business of a burgeoning family life, and it's not out until next sum- mer. But prospects are cheerier for Ben than they've been in a long time. He might have been down, he might have been out, but he just might be back soon. - MacDonald be reached at kmacd907@gmail.com. JIM CARREY & KATE WINSLET Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind SATURDAY, SEPT.16 @ MIDNIGHT FOR MORE INFO VISIT WWW.MICHTHEATER.ORG/STATE.F THE POWER TOE TEXT rFREELY WITH SPRINT. New ultra-thin Katana" by Sanyo' Available in 3 colors Built-in camera Bluetooth'technology Get 300 free text messages a month for 12 months. Afte 12 mts, pa th; eua otl e Take pictures, listen to music and text, text, text on Sprint's slim new phones. These new phones start at $79.99 after instant savings and mail-in rebate. Requires activation on a new line of service and two-year subscriber agreement. 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