"…I love The Brothers Bloom. It’s as if Wes Anderson and David Mamet had a baby and that baby was adopted and breastfed by Steven Soderbergh and then allowed to live with Rian Johnson for the summer."

— CHUD.com’s Nick Nunziata puts Bloom in his Top 15 of 2009!

"Interior, day. Con man Bloom (Adrien Brody) sits at the foot of a bed next to his mark, heiress Penelope Stamp (Rachel Weisz). But he’s not here for her millions, not any more. He’s fallen in love. They’re talking, and then suddenly they’re just looking at each other. He’s going to kiss her. She wants him to. But as he leans in, he pauses, and the look he gives her in that pause is sexier than anything else in a movie all year."

— The Globe & Mail’s Johanna Schneller, Counting Bloom and Penelope’s kiss among Film’s Best Moments of 2009

"My favorite line in Rian Johnson’s crafty crime caper, The Brothers Bloom, comes early on when a young girl eager to fall hook, line and sinker for the yarn being spun before her turns on a skeptic and says, “Shut up, Dave.” Those three words speak to the role that storytelling plays in our lives, its unique capacity for making lives better if only we will it to do so. In a genre often regarded more for its detached sense of cool above any real sense of character, it’s strange to see a con man movie be this funny and warm-hearted, refreshingly un-cynical in its inevitable effort to trick the audience as much as its characters. For these two hours, all the Daves of the world can go stuff it."

— Sir William Goss, ranking Bloom #7 on his well chosen 10 best of the year at efilmcritic.com.

"Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo y Rachel Weisz están fantásticos en esta cinta que representa la epítome de lo que para mí el cine debe hacer: entretener."

— Ivan Morales, from his top 10 (Bloom made number 3!) in Cine Premiere Magazine

"Following the parallel of con artistry and storytelling Johnson sets up in his film, The Brothers Bloom is the best con job ever because I got exactly what I wanted: a film that’s not only the year’s best, but one I’ll treasure for years and years to come."

— Collider’s Matt Goldberg places Bloom atop his top 10 of 2009!

Happy holidays, y’all.

This is an early piano sketch of Nathan’s for Bloom, played by the lovely and talented China Kent.

Thanks to everyone who has tweeted/emailed/shouted to us about seeing our movie over the past few months.  And a happy reminder:  on January 12th the DVD and Blu-ray will finally be available for purchase.  And for our friends in the UK, Bloom will have a theatrical release in May.

Have a happy and safe New Year.

"Viewing number eight observation: The underlying desperation in the Dog’s “Remember me.” He may be an evil old bastard, but he’s as lost as anyone."

— @realsarahalyse

zucherman:

stepliana:

themadeshop:

The Brothers Bloom. Limited Edition Cast Soundtracks. After scoring Bloom, Nathan made each of the cast a unique soundtrack of their specific cues. This is the cover of Bang Bang’s (Rinko Kikuchi).

This is quite possibly the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.

An audio commentary picture from Ana in Brazil.  For those who haven’t heard it, halfway through I instruct you to cough at a specific moment, to see if anyone else in the theater is doing the commentary.  She was the only one who coughed.  But she coughed anyway.  Thanks Ana!

brightredlemons:

(via snakecharmer:radioraja:teagan)

Bang Bang.

nathanjohnson:

Music Monday - Bloom Intro (Rough Electric Version)

You know, for someone who spends most of their time making music, I realized I don’t post a lot of it on Tumblr. So I’m gonna start throwing a little something up on Mondays. Maybe some behind-the-scenes stuff, early sketches, or something from a band that I’m producing and think you should know about.

I’ll start with an early track I just found from the Bloom score. This comes from the Overture, before it was filled out (You can hear the final “Brothers In A One Hat Town” piece here).

The way I did this project involved much more of a “building” process than a traditional score where you write it, record it and release it. I recorded hundreds of different tracks with the key instrumentalists and then began building and editing. As things came together, I would send ideas to Rian and we would talk about the direction before adding new elements.

Often, I would get takes of a few different instruments playing the lead melody lines so I had options for different versions as the entire track developed. In this rough track, you get to hear Jonny Rodgers’ great electric guitar work in a much more stripped down way.

"I honestly feel that I can review stupid Rian’s stupid movie on stupid awesome Blu-ray with no conflict of interest whatsoever."

— William Goss takes a gander at the Bloom Blu-ray over at Cinematical.

Here’s a little extra that we couldn’t put on the DVD.

This is a very crude animatic of the opening childhood sequence from The Brothers Bloom (COUGH now available for rental on DVD and BluRay COUGH) that I created early in the pre-production process. As will be immediately and humiliatingly evident, I did all the voices myself. The artwork consists of storyboards by the very talented Daniele Auber, and it was all put together on my laptop in Final Cut Pro.

Minimal resources, very slapdash, but it ended up being an invaluable tool in showing both business and creative folks we were courting how the whole thing would come together.

Make Way, Make Room!

The Brothers Bloom is available right now for rental only in the US.  It’s on both Blu-ray and DVD, and it has a ton of great features, including a brand new commentary track, a Behind the Scenes I cut together myself, about half an hour of deleted scenes, storyboard comparisons, artwork galleries, and a special easter egg for those who enjoy a good egg hunt.

So - the big question I’ve been getting is why you cannot buy this disc yet.  I don’t have a terrific answer, except that this is the way it’s being released, and it’s a release model that (like it or not) we’re going to see more of in the future.  Basically, giving rental outlets an exclusive window gets more support from them, which means more discs on shelves, more promotion, etc.

The semi-good news is that the disc will be available for purchase on January 9th.  A few Halloween parties, a little turkey, some holiday shopping, and WHAM-O, it’ll be here before you know it.  Till then, you can find Bloom at Blockbuster, on Netflix, on iTunes, and just about any other rental outlet.  Thanks, and let me know what you think!