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*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars. The number one movie over the long Memorial Day weekend is “Shrek Forever After” with $55.7 million. That’s the lowest amount for a chart-topping film over Memorial Day since “How to Train Your Dragon” at least. The runner-up spot is a toss up. “Prince of Persia: […]
Entries from May 2010
MONDAY CENTS: Uh-oh
Posted by Chad Hartigan · 4:05 pm · May 31st, 2010
Filed in: Box Office · Sunday Cents
Del Toro hobbles ‘Hobbit’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:13 am · May 31st, 2010
You’ve probably heard the news by now, but in case you haven’t, here’s a précis via Variety: Guillermo Del Toro has dropped out directing “The Hobbit” movies due to the ongoing delays in getting the films greenlit. Del Toro made the surprise announcement Sunday on The One Ring web site, adding that he will continue […]
Filed in: Daily
Jennifer Lawrence would like to remind you she’s hot
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:41 am · May 31st, 2010
Assuming (and I am assuming) that the film remains in the conversation, Kris and I will be at loggerheads all season over “Winter’s Bone” — I am a fan, he is emphatically not. What we do agree on, however, is that the film’s 19-year-old star, Jennifer Lawrence, is the real deal. Actually, we agreed on […]
Filed in: Daily
R.I.P. Dennis Hopper
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:13 pm · May 29th, 2010
“What are they gonna say about him? Are they gonna say he was a kind man? He was wise man? He had plans? He had wisdom?” It’s up to those of us left to have that say, I suppose. He’ll live forever. Ride easy.
Filed in: Daily
On the move
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 3:35 pm · May 28th, 2010
Sorry for the post-Cannes drought on my end. I’m en route from Chicago to Nowheresville, Ohio after a rockin’ Route 66 road trip and will be playing meet the parents this weekend. Understandably, I’m out of pocket. So use this space to talk about, I don’t know, “Shrek?” “Prince of Persia?” All I know is […]
Filed in: Daily
FRIDAY FORECAST: Disrespect the Middle East edition
Posted by Chad Hartigan · 2:44 pm · May 28th, 2010
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars. There’s a mild controversy every time a “Sex and the City” movie comes out where it is mercilessly trashed for existing by male critics who, the accusation goes, often let comparable trash starring men get off easy. Well, you all know that I can not be […]
Filed in: Box Office · Friday Forecast
INTERVIEW: ‘Father of My Children’ director Mia Hansen-Løve
Posted by Guy Lodge · 10:38 am · May 27th, 2010
As film critics continue to pick over the spoils of Cannes 2010, for regular cinemagoers, it can take an awfully long time for the movies in question to trickle down to them. Case in point: Mia Hansen-Løve’s remarkable sophomore feature “Father of My Children,” which impressed critics and won a special jury prize in the […]
Filed in: Interviews
LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 1949 and 1950
Posted by Chad Hartigan · 7:33 pm · May 26th, 2010
Catch up with the idea behind this series here. “All the King’s Men” won the Best Picture prize in 1949, appropriately closing the book on the decade of socially conscious dramas hogging all of the attention. Somewhere, an eight year old Mike Medavoy sat in a dark theater watching and said, “I’m gonna grow up […]
Filed in: Life Without Oscar
CANNES: Starfish and coffee
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:36 am · May 24th, 2010
“Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye,” you might have thought (or even sang, in gravelly Leonard Cohen tones) after my rushed response to yesterday’s Cannes winners. But having recharged overnight with a hearty curry and a good 13 hours’ sleep, it’s time to properly put a bow on Cannes 2010. Perhaps it was quite […]
Filed in: Daily
OFF THE CARPET: Taking the temperature
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:28 pm · May 23rd, 2010
Now that we’re on the other side of Cannes, I felt it was a good time to put a finger to the wind, stare into the tea leaves, shake the magic 8-ball and basically just take stock of where we’re at roughly three months away from the start of the 2010-2011 film awards season. The […]
Filed in: Off the Carpet
SUNDAY CENTS: Pain in the ‘Shrek’
Posted by Chad Hartigan · 1:51 pm · May 23rd, 2010
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars. We did it guys! Collectively, we have decided that the Shrek property, after three dreadful installments, is no longer an untouchable juggernaut, but just a regular old extremely profitable movie. We have also decided that summer 2010 is going to give movie theater owners a lot […]
Filed in: Box Office · Sunday Cents
‘Uncle Boonmee,’ Bardem, Binoche take gold at Cannes
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:53 am · May 23rd, 2010
No prizes for guessing which award here makes me happiest. I’m quite proud of having semi-called (who sees a tie coming, anyway?) Elio Germano for Best Actor — didn’t hear anybody else mentioning his name. Also got the top two prizewinners, just in reverse order. More discussion later, but for now, I have a dinner […]
Filed in: Daily
CANNES: What will win… and what should
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:47 am · May 23rd, 2010
Okay, so that took longer than I expected. I had hoped to get this post up last night, but instead got quite easily talked into a night on the tiles with a band of merry Film Dweebs led by James Rocchi — not the wisest idea with a morning flight to catch, but by the […]
Filed in: Daily
‘On Tour,’ ‘Of Gods,’ ‘HaHaHa’ take early Cannes prizes
Posted by Guy Lodge · 12:11 pm · May 22nd, 2010
The big guns, the Competition jury, announce their prizewinners tomorrow night, but ahead of that, there are a host of smaller, independent juries making their voices heard. I’ve just returned from the Un Certain Regard award ceremony, a short, sweet tuxedoes-and-sneakers affair presided over by UCR jury president Claire Denis. As delighted as I was […]
Filed in: Daily
CANNES: All things being sequel
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:29 am · May 22nd, 2010
I began my final day in Cannes with some dutiful, and not greatly anticipated, ticking of boxes, taking in my last two Competition screenings back-to-back this morning. That brings my final tally to an elegantly symmetrical 14 and 1/4 films seen of the 19 selected. (That sneaky fraction represents my fatigue-induced walkout on the bookies’ […]
CANNES: ‘Life, Above All,’ ‘Tender Son,’ ‘Cameraman’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:03 pm · May 21st, 2010
“It is finished so soon?” asked the chipper French festival volunteer manning the theater doors as I slunk out of Hong Sangsoo’s “Hahaha” just before 11pm. No, I explained — it had a good hour left to go. “Is it that boring?” he asked. No, I explained — it wasn’t that boring. Modestly boring. Sweetly […]
FRIDAY FORECAST: Is it ogre yet?
Posted by Chad Hartigan · 2:16 pm · May 21st, 2010
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars. That fat, green face to the right is the most successful animated character in the history of film. You guys have made him an icon of cinema greater than Don Corleone, Marty McFly and Jack Sparrow as far as box office receipts are concerned. Whatever hilarious […]
Filed in: Box Office · Friday Forecast
CANNES: Machinists, masochists and monkey ghosts
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:22 am · May 21st, 2010
“Are you eating at all? Are you sleeping? You don’t look like you are,” observed our good friend Anne Thompson yesterday afternoon, her face etched with motherly concern, before whisking me off for a hearty al fresco meal. I wanted to tell Anne that I tend to cut a pretty gaunt figure even on my […]
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