Buzz, Buzz! 127 Hours
127 Hours. What does that title mean to you? I’m sure you’re looking at the screen right now in need for this to have a point. 127 Hours. It means nothing, huh?
Surprisingly, this film is on no one’s radar right now. And it has all the makings of being one of the front runners come Academy Awards time. Pull out your calendar. On November 5th, write the words “See 127 Hours.” On November 6th write, “Thank Film Savior.”
The 2010 Telluride Film Festival just ended and had a screening of Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours. Boyle was at the same festival two years ago to reveal his almost straight to DVD film Slumdog Millionaire. We all know how that worked out. A few days ago, he unspooled his most recent film. I’ll let the folks who were lucky enough to see it give you a blurb:
The L.A. Times says the film cuts an impressive swath. “Many tears were shed at the world premiere screening of “127 Hours” at the Telluride Film Festival on Saturday afternoon. But few in the audience of some 500 cried harder than Aron Ralston, the hiker who famously cut off his right forearm and is the subject of director Danny Boyle’s new movie.”
Deadline’s Peter Hammond says the film is definitely an Awards hopeful, calling out Franco’s performance in particular. “It’s a tour-de-force for Franco, virtually never off screen in the same way Spencer Tracy triumphed in the similarly spare The Old Man And The Sea (1958). Franco’s performance could put him in contention for a best actor Oscar nod just as Tracy’s did over 50 years ago.”
The NY Times “His experience is disconcerting enough just to think about, and to see it recreated, in Mr. Boyle’s characteristically fast-moving, immersive style, is jarring, thrilling and weirdly funny. At a question-and-answer session after the first screening on Saturday afternoon, Mr. Boyle — director of “Trainspotting,” “28 Days Later” and of course “Slumdog Millionaire,” which snuck into Telluride two years ago — described himself as a thoroughly “urban” type with no great love for or interest in nature. And the jangly, jumpy energy he brings to a story of silence, solitude and confinement gives the film an irreverent kick that deepens and sharpens its emotional and spiritual insights.”
Variety also loved the film, exclaiming, “Danny Boyle has taken us to the surface of the sun (“Sunshine”) and the end of the world as we know it (“28 Days Later”), testing the limits of human endurance with each radically different project. “127 Hours” takes the adrenaline rush one step further, pitting man against nature in the most elemental of struggles as Boyle compresses the true story of rock-climbing junkie Aron Ralston, who spent five days wrestling with a boulder after a rockslide pinned his arm against a canyon wall, into an intense 93 minutes.”
I was skeptical at the idea at first. But from the sound of things, it seems like Boyle might have yet another masterpiece on his hands. And it’s about time James Franco gets his due. I’m just sayin’.
