Check out the preview attached at the foot.

A ’60s period piece, A Single Man has the same production designer on staff that AMC’s Mad Men has had for all 3 of its seasons, Dan Bishop. And it shows. The trailer has Mad Men’s same sleek but not necessarily glamorized aesthetic. Word has gotten out too, that, also like Mad Men, A Single Man will feature certain time-specific events–like the Cuban Missle Crisis and Psycho’s theatrical run–which I think adds a nice depth, especially considering the film’s main thread follows the conflict of Colin Firth’s character’s sexual preference. If the time period is relevant, why not flesh it out and make it a character?

As for the film’s visuals, it’s really no wonder they look so good. For 10 years Tom Ford was the creative designer for Gucci and was apparently the guy who built the brand back up when it was on the fringe of bankruptcy. Personally, I don’t really care too much about that, but it’s interesting, to see a guy so visually-oriented make the switch from fashion to film. And I’ve always been a sucker for style. Give me even a bad film that looks amazing and I’d probably err close to a 3star.

Oh, and get this: rumor has it that Harvey Weinstein guaranteed Tom Ford an Oscar for either Best Picture or Best Director when he bought the rights to his film–which to me seems like a pretty stupid thing to guarantee but, again, interesting. Especially that Firth already won Best Actor at Venice.

The picture also stars Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult (The Weather Man) and Matthew Goode (Watchmen, Match Point). And just take another look at that poster. Something about it. I could stare at it all day.

A Single Man will hit limited markets December 11th.

A 24-year-old contestant on the show, Simonova tells a story through a series of portraits she paints on sand canvases with her fingers. And the pieces are just incredible. But what’s maybe most fascinating is how they’re created while we watch, brought to life then destroyed with every turn of Simonova’s hand, something new and equally stunning forming from what’s left of the scene before it. These aren’t finished products hanging on a wall, but interactive ones, changing and growing as we watch, organic and living.

I gotta give credit to RowThree.com for posting these videos. Incredible stuff. Really. And the keen observer might notice a certain METALLICA tune transposed through violins scoring part of the show. Because when people think emotional performance art, isn’t METALLICA always the first that comes to mind? Sand and metal – more like peas and carrots, am I right?

Anyway, on that note, enjoy the shoreline.

To preface, let me first say that I think I may be the only person on the planet who didn’t go crazy for Adaptation. Really, I didn’t even like Being John Malkovich all that much. To me, they were over-meta and over-clever. There was just something about them, something that turned me off and didn’t ring true. I know, heresy, blasphemy. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t respect them (it’s hard to disrespect anything Charlie Kaufman puts out). And despite being underwhelmed by those two, Spike Jonze’s first two features, I can’t help but be oddly enamored with the looks of his third, the children’s book turned anti-CGI fantasy film, Where the Wild Things Are.

I look at the book cover and I know that I know it. I know I should have some memory of being in the elementary school library with my juice box in one hand and Where the Wild Things Are in the other, red juice stains lining my lips as I skipped the words in favor of the pictures–but I just can’t place it. Now, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, that’s cemented in there; The Hungry Caterpillar, no problem. But this one’s lost somewhere between a memory of throwing a birthday for the letter T in kindergarten and my very first act of rebellion, whispering instead of sleeping on that red and blue mat during nap time every afternoon. And it’s driving me nuts.

This just-released full trailer, though, conjures something up in me, more feelings than memory, but something. In a way, it’s kind of amazing. It’s got this incredible sense of youthfulness and dreaming, of drifting away on that red and blue mat and for a passing few minutes being somewhere better than school, somewhere perfectly lit and in the forest. I may not have the best track record with Jonze so far but I think this may be the one to break the streak. Just the way the costumes look almost homemade, like something out of Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep, adds such an organic feeling to the world. And Jonze’s background in music videos comes through, too–ARCADE FIRE’s “Wake Up” feels tailor-made and perfect here.

The only thing I worry about is whether spending 90 minutes with the “wild things” would get old. The 2 and a half minutes we get of the trailer are definitely chill worthy, but once you strip away the music and quick cuts, I wonder, will it start to feel like any other kid’s movie? Knowing Jonze’s style, probably not. I guess I just worry about it being over-something again, over-cute, maybe, or possibly over-weird. But I do love James Gandolfini voicing the main monster. He always had a childlike fragility buried under all of his anger and overcompensating in The Sopranos and, like it or not, he’ll probably always be Tony to us when we see him onscreen. Having just his voice, though, should offer that certain mix of power and innocence without the drag of us constantly waiting for him to make an ice cream sundae or quit therapy again.

Let me know what you think about the trailer. The film’s due October 16th.

Here’s another promo with less dialogue and story but a lot more of an escape-into-the-imagination feel. I personally think it’s a better trailer, just not as plot or character-oriented. Click here to watch.