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"They're filming midgets!!!" IN BRUGES opens Sundance '08 and Quint was there!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I’ve just seen the opening night film of the Sundance Film Festival: IN BRUGES. Last year the opening night flick was CHICAGO 10, which I had a very mixed reaction to. Not the best way to kick off the fest and I hoped IN BRUGES would be a better starter.
It was.
IN BRUGES has become my favorite movie of the year. Granted, the only theatrical films I’ve seen this year are Dungeon Siege, First Sunday, Alvin and the Chipmunks, One Missed Call and Cloverfield (one of these movies doesn’t belong! Can you figure out which one?).
So what you’ve got is a dark buddy comedy starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson about two hitmen whose boss sends them to a small town in Belgium to hide out after a botched job. Burges is the name of this storybook town.
The movie balances drama and comedy well. I’d say it’s more comedy than drama, but there are a few moments of deadly seriousness that really give the film its own identity. You also have Gleeson and Farrell who are fucking hilarious together. Very odd couple.
Farrell hates being cooped up in this quaint town, wanting desperately to go back to London or at the very least get pissed and coked out of his mind. Gleeson on the other hand is the professional, trying to keep a low profile and take in the sights. He genuinely loves taking in the sights, doing the tourist thing.
The film this most reminded me of was GROSSE POINTE BLANK. It’s a quirky world, not quite reality as we know it (it’s too farcical), but the real world has an influence and these gray characters feel real regret, guilt and remorse.
And it has midgets. (The headline is indeed a line from the movie as we come to find out that Farrell loves midgets and is awed by their presence).
And that is why it is awesome.
There’s some Danish movie shooting in Bruges as these guys are hiding out featuring a midget actor in a weird dream sequence. He’s not a happy man. Jordan Prentice plays the actor and he’s fuckin’ great. A quick trip to IMDB shows me he should be worshipped not only for turning in a great performance in this flick, but because he was the man behind the feathers. He was indeed HOWARD THE DUCK. How badass is that?
I’m going to the BRUGES movie party after I post this up and if I happen to meet Mr. Prentice I will completely weird him out with my HOWARD THE DUCK love.
Anyway, if it wasn’t enough that you had smart writing and two really funny leads, you’re also introduced to a hot drug dealer (Clemence Posey… so yes, this movie is a little like a Harry Potter convention… Fleur, Voldemort and Mad Eye Moody), an angry Canadian, a fat American who tries to punch Farrell’s lights out, a pregnant hotel owner and, ultimately, Ralph Fiennes who is Harry, the pissed off f-bomb dropping boss.
This movie really rocked my world. I do love midgets, I do love pitch black comedy and this movie has them both in spades. Focus has a really great film on their hands. I hope they can find it its audience. It opens in limited release next month. This is strongly recommended by me. I had a blast with this movie.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com

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Can't wait!
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Jan 17, 2008 11:57:03 PM CST
Martin Mcdonough is one of the best playwrites around
by industrykiller!
The Pillowman and Lieutenant of Innishmore are two of my favorite plays and given the sharp dialogue in both those plays it's no surprise he translates well to cinema. I've never seen his short and was surprised to hear he won an Oscar. Can't wait to see In Bruges
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can balance humor and tragedy quite well.
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Or just quirky movies with movie stars. That snark being said, I dug the trailer for IN BRUGES alot when I saw it.
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Saw this trailer in a theater that uses actual film, looked kick ass.
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in WARSAW SYMPHONY, a webcomic coming soon to AICN[, hopefully]!
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but nice to see that QUINT is one of us!I bet he loves BRIDGET!
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http://tinyurl.com/2jd5cx
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and i will for sure see IN Bruges!
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Not exactly live over there but it's only a twenty minute drive. Really weird to see that tourist little town represented in movie like this. :)
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So glad we have festivals like Sundance that give little known movies starring unknowns like this Colin Farrell guy and this Brendan Gleeson dude their time to shine. Just think, if it wasn't for Sundance we'd never get to see any of these films or ever hear about these actors. God bless Sundance.
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Ralph goes down to Bruges to kill them because they won't answer the phone? that's the impression that i got from the trailer, and if that's the case, it's gotta be the funniest reason ever to kill someone.
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is one of my favorite plays and McDonough is a wonderful playwright. I'll see this movie just because of Pillowman.
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We prefer to be called Dwarves. Little People. People of Dimunitive Stature. Dwarfish. Dwarf-like. Smallish. Small. Shorter-than-average. Height-challenged. Teeny. Teensy. Lilliputian, even. Or miniature people. Petite. Undersized. Bantam-weight, gnomish, or manikin. Perhaps you can all us knee-high half-pint homonculouses. Pigmy, squirt, or runt.Pee-wee. Those of stunted growth. Shrunken. Wee.Minute. Bogie, Brownie, Goblin, Gremlin, Hob, Imp, or Leprechaun I personally hate that one both my other dwarf freinds don't mind it coming from the right people.Cramped, diminutive, dinky, elfin, embryonic, fleeting, imperceptible, inappreciable, inconsiderable, infinitesimal, insufficient, meager, microscopic, mini, not big, not large, peanut, scant of height, shorter than you, shrimp, shriveled, skimpy, slight, snub, sparse, stubby, stunted, teeny, tiny, toy, truncated, undersized, undeveloped.JUSTDON'TCALLUSMIDGETS.That is all.
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Really?
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From Ireland..he's a wrestler. He likes to be called the Glasgow Goblin. But don't call him a midget.
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and there was a all midget episode of MONSTER GARAGE(Jesse James rules)!
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and there was a all Goblin episode of MONSTER GARAGE(Jesse James rules)!
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How I love the scene where Peter Dinklage rips the director (Steve Buscemi) a new one over his arbitrary use of a dwarf to create a "weird" atmosphere. Think the real target of that rant might have been David Lynch...
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