I’ve been mulling over this story all day, wondering where I stand, weighing the pros and cons of any legislation whatsoever that could be painted as First Amendment violation.  I’ve come to the conclusion that Los Angeles is incredibly inept at addressing serious concerns (traffic, a new spike in gang violence, managing tax dollars with […]

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I was a big fan of Peter Sollett’s NYU student film “Five Feet High and Rising” and doubly impressed when he expanded those ideas in 2002 as “Raising Victor Vargas.”  So count me in for the upcoming “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” which gets a trailer today: (Courtesy: /Film)

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Many of you may have noticed the Facebook tag in the right sidebar for our modest In Contention group.  A number of you have already joined up, and we love you for it.  We’re just sort of testing the waters of alternate Web communities to spread the IC word, so thanks for helping us out. […]

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A trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s “The Argentine” (the first half of his “Che” epic, which received mixed reactions at Cannes this year but certainly has its devotees) has landed on YouTube. James at Cinematical points the way, but get it while it’s hot. Not that there’s a studio involved that could yank the trailer down, […]

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So far, 2008 hasn’t presented a surfeit of cast-iron Best Actress contenders. (Consider that by this time last year, we all knew Marion Cotillard and Julie Christie were locks.) Angelina Jolie seems to have been installed as the de facto frontrunner since Cannes, but I’m not really buying it – her performance has some high-profile […]

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No particularly new insights to be gleaned from this, but when a Limey paper declares awards season to be officially on, you know it’s here. Guardian writer Jeremy Kay glosses over the upcoming Venice and Toronto festivals, picking out some awards potential from the lineup. He begins by trumpeting the Best Actor chances of Mickey […]

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Yeah, consider the source: the National Enquirer.  But apparently these two names are swirling around the casting debate for the sequel to the box office shattering “Dark Knight.” (Actually…there’s no source on the Depp bit.) Thanks to reader Ronn for passing in the information.  You all know my Bat allegiance, so I’ll use just about […]

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUTrh2ueqtU

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I don’t know if any of our readers are die hard NFL fans like yours truly, but I wanted to post this Reebok “Join the Migration” commercial that caught my eye on “NFL Live” a moment ago.  Great concept, nicely achieved, I love the separate teams trudging through these almost expressionist examples of hometown environments.  […]

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I missed David Poland’s review of “Tropic Thunder,” which was published on Monday. Predictably, it’s a negative assessment. Poland hasn’t liked anything this summer beyond “Speed Racer” and “hancock” (which might say it all right there), but as usual, he goes to great lengths to make his point. The only real awards possibilities for the […]

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I have to admit, I got a chuckle out of Tom O’Neil’s latest diatribe against the AMPAS.  Mainly, I just like to see him riled up, but he does have a point here.  Regarding the recent press release for the Academy’s upcoming screening of “Brokeback Mountain,” Tom had this to say: Am I the only […]

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For lack of a better term (and one I admit to stealing from my friend Sasha Stone…hope she doesn’t skewer me on that front)…but yes, we’ve been slowly working toward crafting separate pages for each of the major films expected to be in Oscar contention within the next few months. You can find a number […]

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Some of you may know that our own John Foote, in addition to toiling away in the life of a film critic and educating the next generation of Canadian filmmaking talent at the Toronto Film School, is also an author. His most recent release is “Clint Eastwood: Evolution of a Filmmaker,” which is available now […]

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As much as I rant about some of the bizarre choices made by the Academy, let’s be fair…there are times when they are right on the money. The AMPAS allowed for an embracing of the New American cinema with their awards for Best Picture and Best Director for “Midnight Cowboy” in 1969, and only they […]

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I need to tread gently here and if offend that is not my intention…at all. I am not an American but I’ve always been fascinated with American history and politics. While I would never presume to know more about America than its own people, I must admit I struggle with the idea of George W. […]

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There are some major surprises in the competition lineup for next month’s Venice Film Festival, not the least of which are the global flavour and soberness of the lineup itself. In previous years, the Lido has proved a launchpad for starry, surefire awards vehicles (“Atonement” and “Michael Clayton” both made successful bows there last year, […]

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Well, I said I would remain guarded when the rumour mill stated that Duffy was “almost certain” to sing the long-discussed theme song for “Quantum of Solace.” And rightly so. After a drawn-out process in which seemingly everyone in the pop universe but Michael Jackson was at one point in the running, the producers have […]

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Things will be slow and/or funky around here for the next couple of days.  The spike in traffic resulting from the switch to daily coverage during the off-season has forced me to change servers.  It’s a good thing, but a process, so bear with us for a few.

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