Features
Entries from October 2009
Obligatory horror TV/movie embed post
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 4:53 pm · October 31st, 2009
Filed in: Daily
Did I miss this?
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 4:49 pm · October 31st, 2009
A Baz Luhrmann travel commercial for Australia called “Come Walkabout” starring Brandon Walters. The spots aired last year but I never saw one until I did on a plane this afternoon. My first reaction (when I realized it was a commercial), was that it was a shame to see the single best part of Luhrmann’s […]
Filed in: Daily
Happy Halloween from 38,000 feet
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 12:26 pm · October 31st, 2009
Filed in: Et Cetera
New ‘The Road’ trailer
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:59 pm · October 30th, 2009
A vast improvement on the tonally misjudged first effort, though it gives in to bombast halfway through. I wonder if it’ll be enough to sell this prickly package — it’s always hard to judge trailers when you’ve already seen the film at hand, particularly if said film didn’t really work for you anyway. Is this […]
Filed in: Daily
‘Help Yourself’ from ‘Up in the Air’ becomes the latest music branch rule book casualty
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 4:57 pm · October 30th, 2009
The music branch of the Academy sure hasn’t done the hard-working awards team at Paramount any favors lately. You might recall the 2007 fiasco surrounding Johnny Greenwood’s score for “There Will Be Blood,” which left his immaculate (some would say year’s-best) work ineligible due to arbitrary, overly subjective fine print concerning the dilution of the […]
Filed in: Daily
Academy members weigh in on The Ten
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:59 pm · October 30th, 2009
In the four months since the Academy announced its controversial switch from five to 10 Best Picture nominees, you’ve heard a lot of griping (and occasional enthusing) from assorted critics, industry-watchers and schmoes like me. What we haven’t heard is too much perspective on the issues from the voters themselves. So USA Today’s Susan Wloszczyna […]
Filed in: Daily
What scares Martin Scorsese … and me
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:18 pm · October 30th, 2009
Tomorrow, of course, is Hallowe’en — an institution more treasured in the US than it is on my side of the ocean, where it’s principally another excuse to get drunk. (But hey, this year I’ll be getting drunk while wearing a silly hat. Progress!) One aspect of the holiday that travels well, at least, is […]
Filed in: Daily
Daniel Battsek leaves Miramax
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:13 pm · October 30th, 2009
This seemed to be in the offing for a while, but it’s always disconcerting to hear of major upheaval at a Hollywood institution like Miramax. The studio is folding its New York office, while Daniel Battsek, who has headed the Weinstein brothers’ former empire since 2005, will leave the company in January. Battsek announced the […]
Filed in: Daily
The Great Performances: 1998
Posted by John Foote · 2:03 pm · October 30th, 2009
For all my bitching about Roberto Benigni winning Best Actor in 1998 for his incessant mugging in “Life is Beautiful,” I was also thrilled the Academy watched enough films and paid enough attention to realize that Edward Norton was deserving for his magnetic turn as a neo-Nazi who sees the light in “American History X.” […]
Filed in: Daily
INTERVIEW: ‘The Informant!’ writer Scott Z. Burns
Posted by Guy Lodge · 1:26 pm · October 30th, 2009
For Scott Z. Burns, the best way to tell the story of a compulsive liar was to take some liberties with the truth himself. “I’ve always been fascinated by lies … we all are,” the cheerfully forthright screenwriter tells me of his attraction to the story behind “The Informant!,” Steven Soderbergh’s playfully comic biopic of […]
Filed in: Interviews
No Oscar Talk today
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:47 am · October 30th, 2009
I find myself back east for my grandmother’s funeral this afternoon, so Anne and I have postponed this week’s podcast. We hope to have it for you Sunday. FYI.
Filed in: Daily
Calling the Best Picture wild cards
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:52 am · October 30th, 2009
Tom O’Neil has pooled the thoughts of 16 awards-watchers on which 10 films will make the Best Picture cut, and the results make for ominously predictable reading. All 16 agree that “The Hurt Locker” and “Invictus” are in (I guess it’s just me holding out on the latter then), while there’s near-consensus on the likes […]
Filed in: Daily
10/30 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:03 am · October 30th, 2009
• Brian Lowry on how The Ten is an Oscarcast producer’s nightmare. [Variety] • With Hugh Jackman out, Jeff Wells thinks the Oscars need to skew younger with their host. [Hollywood Elsewhere] • The producers of “London River” launch a deserved Oscar campaign for Brenda Blethyn, despite still lacking US distribution. [Notes on a Season]
Filed in: Daily
Jackman turns down Oscar gig
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:38 am · October 30th, 2009
As the annual guessing game of who will host the Academy Awards continues to go in circles, there’s at least one name we can remove from consideration: a certain Mr. Hugh Jackman. Variety confirms that the previous Oscar emcee was invited to repeat, but “quietly” turned down the opportunity sometime in the last few weeks, […]
Filed in: Daily
Renner, Stuhlbarg, Waltz among Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:42 pm · October 29th, 2009
Variety’s annual list of 10 Actors to Watch may occasionally raise questions of what constitutes a career “breakthrough” — particularly in the case of established actors who those in the know have been watching all along. Still, it always makes for interesting reading, not least because, in some cases, it highlights names that Variety’s editors […]
Filed in: Daily
SHORT TAKE: “Nowhere Boy” (**1/2)
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:17 pm · October 29th, 2009
London Film Festival A bright, slight, mostly enjoyable portrait of the formative years of John Lennon, artist-turned-filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood’s “Nowhere Boy” opens with a nudge-nudge tease, as the singular opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night” reverberates through the theater over a shot of the 18 year-old Lennon running to school. That single-second strum, however, […]
Filed in: Reviews
TECH SUPPORT: Best Film Editing — Volume II
Posted by gerardkennedy · 11:08 am · October 29th, 2009
As I wrote in August, “Best Achievement in Film Editing” can be a difficult thing to define. Traditionally, we most notice film editing that is showy, usually in action films, musicals or movies that are not told chronologically. But does that make the editing better? If done well, it undoubtedly can add to the quality […]
Filed in: Tech Support
New ‘Avatar’ trailer and featurette
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:27 am · October 29th, 2009
Yahoo! Movies has debuted the new “Avatar” trailer. Take a look at it in HD here or via the embed below. After the jump, get a load of a new behind-the-scenes featurette for the film.
Filed in: Daily
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