In Contention

Tag: A Serious Man

  • WTF with the giant fireball thing??

    With “The Social Network” picking up yet another award last week (for Best in Show at the Golden Trailer Awards), Ryan Adams at Awards Daily asked for personal picks for favorite trailers.

    There are a number that spring to mind for me. I maintain that the first “Pearl Harbor” trailer (link), with the score from “The Thin Red Line,” was absolutely masterful. The “Alien” trailer (link) is in many ways more unsettling than the actual film, while just two years ago, whoever pieced together the tease for the Coens’ “A Serious Man” (link) knew what was up.

    Even more recently, the trailers for “Black Swan” (link) and David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (link) dazzled, while the “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” trailer that dropped last week reminded me of how tightly constructed the one for “A Single Man” (link) was. But the truth is, when I think of movie trailers and their power to seize your attention, I’m taken back some 15 years to a sci-fi film and a tease that had me more intrigued than whatever film I was about to watch. And it contains the single greatest image ever used to sell a film, in my opinion (the final shot). Since it ties in nicely today, I figure I’ll offer it up after the jump.

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  • Guard your secrets

    Yes, another “Inception” post — the wilting lettuce garnish and half-nibbled canapés that make up this year’s summer-movie buffet aren’t providing us with a wealth of conversation topics, you may have noticed.

    Brent Lang’s lengthy piece in The Wrap on the film’s marketing strategy covers a familiar angle: positioning the film as the Great White Hope for original material in rehash-crazy Hollywood, while noting the commercial risks posed by its cerebral subject matter in the current climate. (Less familiar is the description of “Public Enemies” as a “high-concept” blockbuster — huh? — but Lang gets his point across.)

    Two things in the article, however, struck me as worthy of mention. The first, which may or may not be significant, is that Lang relies largely on the internet community for quotes, tapping Drew McWeeny of HitFix, Mike Sampson of JoBlo, Steve Weintraub of Collider and Alex Billington of FirstShowing ahead of any print journos or industry representatives.

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  • Carter Burwell on musical inspiration for ‘True Grit’

    Amid his coverage of the Nashville Film Festival, Nathaniel Rogers at The Film Experience served up a nice little nugget on composer Carter Burwell, the subject of a much-deserved individual tribute at the fest. Naturally, there was much emphasis on his ongoing collaboration with the Brothers Coen, which will continue this year with “True Grit.”

    His score for the film is still in the conceptual stages, but his current source of inspiration suggests something typically singular is in the works:

    “We don’t always see eye to eye.” Burwell noted when discussing his 14th collaboration with Joel and Ethan Coen. But when it came to the conception of the True Grit score “We both had the same idea at the same time: Protestant hymns.” The composer went on to explain that the lead character, Mattie Ross (to be played by Hailee Steinfeld) was so convinced of her own righteousness that they all thought Protestant hymns would be a fine way to play with her misplaced rectitude … He’s currently looking for appropriate hymn recordings but griped that “they all sound too sweet.”

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  • Ranking the categories

    The Hurt LockerAh, Oscar lists — the gift that keeps giving. I’m not going to ape Kris’s impressive ranking of all the nominated features: we’d have the same #1, for starters, and we’re agreeing on far too many things these days. So here’s something else to play with.

    I’ve had a number of emails asking me how I would rank the 10 Best Picture nominees, were I filling out the preferential ballot. I was happy to oblige, but then went a little crazy and applied the same process to all the other races. Hey, Oscar day comes but once a year: get your geek on. With that, my personal Oscar ballot, in full preferential order:

    Best Picture
    1. “The Hurt Locker”
    2. “A Serious Man”
    3. “An Education”
    4. “District 9”
    5. “Inglourious Basterds”
    6. “Up in the Air”
    7. “The Blind Side”
    8. “Up”
    9. “Avatar”
    10. “Precious”

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  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Picture

    Quenton Aaron in The Blind SideAnd here we are. With one day until the Oscar ceremony, we wrap up our Oscar Guide series with a look at the 10 nominations for Best Picture. Yes, 10. The Academy decided to pump up the intrigue by expanding its Best Picture field this year in an attempt at securing some love for more populist films with a wider audience, and it seems to have worked.

    But let’s face it. The most brilliant irony of the season would be, if after all of its attempts, the field expansion, spiffying up the telecast, etc., the Academy is one-upped by a film that virtually no one saw winning Best Picture. It could happen, but the highest grossing film of all time could also win. No shortage of drama here.

    The nominees are:

    “Avatar” (James Cameron and Jon Landau)
    “The Blind Side” (Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson)
    “District 9    ” (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham)
    “An Education” (Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey)
    “The Hurt Locker” (Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro)
    “Inglourious Basterds” (Lawrence Bender)
    “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lee Daniels, Sarah Sidel-Magness and Gary Magness)
    “A Serious Man” (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
    “Up” (Jonas Rivera)
    “Up in the Air” (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman)

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  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Writing (Original Screenplay)

    Woody Harrelson in The MessengerBest Original Screenplay: 2009’s most difficult category to predict. Why? Certainly not because of each contender’s merits (when does that ever come into play with the Academy). No, this field is a hair-puller because you have a vibrant, likable personality up against the Best Picture frontrunner, always a recipe for a close race (and, sometimes, a recipe for upset).

    This year’s nominees contain four Best Picture nominees and one surprise (which thankfully ousted the most overrated indie charmer of the year). Atypically, there are as many Best Picture nominees represented here than in the adapted field, which can’t be a bad thing.

    The nominees are:

    “The Hurt Locker” (Mark Boal)
    “Inglourious Basterds” (Quentin Tarantino)
    “The Messenger” (Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman)
    “A Serious Man” (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
    “Up” (Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter; Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy)

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  • 3/2 Oscarweb Round-up

    Carey Mulligan in An Education• Pete Hammond says the Best Actress race is close, pats himself on the back for the fact that one of the countless early ideas he threw at the wall actually stuck. [Notes on a Season]

    • Rachel Abramowitz notes Carey Mulligan’s rise to stardom via Julian Fellowes, well, via an assistant friend of an assistant to a casting director who knew Fellowes’s wife.  You follow? [24 Frames]

    • The 20 best Oscar night dresses of the last 20 years. [Entertainment Weekly]

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  • ‘Serious’ wheels

    How much do you love “A Serious Man?” Alternatively, how much do you love vintage American automobiles? If the answer to either or both of those questions is “a lot” — and if you have some cash to spare — you might want to take part in Focus Features’ charity auction of the rather awesome 1966 Dodge driven by Michael Stuhlbarg in the Coens’ latest.

    Bidding is currently under way on eBay, and all proceeds from the eventual sale go to Variety: The Children’s Charity of Southern California.

    1966 Dodge, as seen in A Serious Man

  • Pump the brakes

    I was giving this LA Times photo gallery the benefit of the doubt until it tried to convince me that “Up” is in any way a “Best Picture mirror” to “Around the World in 80 Days,” or “A Serious Man” to “The Apartment.”

  • How we did today (not bad) and a year out (not so much)

    Brian Geraghty in The Hurt LockerI forgot to sit down and take a look at my year-in-advance predictions for this year and see how I did.  Not too great.

    In the Best Picture field (before the announcement of an expanded category, mind you), the only film I listed that made it through was “The Hurt Locker.” Kathryn Bigelow was also the only director I correctly projected, so that’s 1/10 and 1/5 in the top two categories.

    Morgan Freeman, Carey Mulligan, Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz were the only actors I got correct, while in the screenplay categories it was just “An Education,” “A Serious Man” and “Up.”

    All in all, including the crafts categories, I got 24 nominees of the 88 I predicted in 18 categories.  I’ve lost track of how well I’ve done with this silly experiment over the years, but I don’t think that’s one of the better tallies.  Maybe it is.

    Which brings me to this announcement.  After a lot of consideration I’ve decided to forgo my nearly decade-old process of predicting the nominees a year in advance.  There will be no post-Oscar assessment of the year ahead.  The reasons are plenty.

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  • The year in FYCs

    Sherlock Holmes For Your Consideration adOne of the best parts of the film awards season, for me, has always been the print advertising artwork of “For Your Consideration” ads in trade publications.  They feature a studio advertising department’s best foot forward on creatively reaching the AMPAS audience and generally make for some striking imagery.

    Though I have to say, I find myself consistently wondering how much longer they will be a mainstay.  The transition to online focus is becoming more and more evident.  After all, Paramount Pictures angled its awards budget mainly toward online outlets this year.  There wasn’t a single trade ad for “Up in the Air” all year long and it has done just fine for itself this season.  I think that’s a first (and an early promise I was surprised to see the studio make good on).  It’ll be interesting to see if other studios follow suit.

    Anyway, sorry for the tangent.  With all this in mind, an annual delight has always been Sasha Stone’s round-up of FYC ads at Awards Daily.  A few years ago the gallery duties were handed over to Dora Kappou of Film-Releases.com, who’s done a fine job of presenting the material in an attractive, easily navigable manner.  So which films were the cream of the FYC crop this year?

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  • 1/22 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin• Nikki Finke says Oscarcast producers may be secretly considering a third host. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • Julian Sancton talks to the brilliant (and all but forgotten this season) Anthony Mackie. [Little Gold Men]

    • Davis Guggenheim’s education crisis documentary “Waiting for Superman” is Sundance’s first pick-up. [The Wrap]

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: BFCA awards, Guilds triple, Rohmer passes

    A still from Claire's Knee by Eric Rohmer• As you’ve just heard, “The Hurt Locker” emerged triumphant at the BFCA Critics’ Choice Awards.

    • Earlier this week, Éric Rohmer, sly giant of New Wave intellectualism, passed away at the age of 89.

    • That same day, “Avatar,” “The Hangover” and “Star Trek” were among the films nominated by the WGA.

    • The ASC slate continued the love for “Avatar,” but a semi-surprise nod for “The White Ribbon” got pundits’ attention.

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  • TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: The crafts of ‘A Serious Man’

    Aaron Wolff in A Serious ManThe Coen brothers’ latest film “A Serious Man” opens with a quote from French Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (better known as Rashi):  “Accept with simplicity everything that happens to you.”

    It’s obviously quite applicable to the themes of fatalism and inevitability strewn throughout the film.  But that word, “simple,” also comes up over and over again when discussing below-the-line elements with the directors’ collaborators.

    Jess Gonchor is the newest craftsman to join the Coens’ party, having first jumped on board with 2007’s “No Country for Old Men.” When the sibling directors got a look at “Capote” two years earlier, they were quite taken by the stark, understated look of the production design and wanted to meet with Gonchor about potentially designing their Cormac McCarthy adaptation.

    “I guess I just talked about it intelligently enough,” Gonchor remembers, with an air of humility.  “We were on the same page never having met each other.  And also, I come from making movies that are low budget if any budget.  You can do anything with money.”

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Memo to the Academy

    The Academy Awards–MEMO–

    TO: Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
    FROM: Kristopher Tapley

    RE: The ballot you recently received

    Ladies and gentleman,

    As you sit to ponder the year’s best in your various fields of professional expertise, you might find yourself strong-armed into the consensus view 2009’s film product has been whittled down to over the last several months.  You might even find yourself at a loss, cramming as much as you can after a year of constantly working with nary a moment to spare a trip to the cinema.

    Such last minute jitters can yield an unconsidered and, certainly, lackadaisical approach to your annual responsibilities as AMPAS members.  But I implore you to take your time with this, be measured, and above all, take pen to paper with a level of seriousness.

    While I would never presume to tell you how to go about filling in your respective ballots, I hope you don’t find it too bold of me to offer a few closing words of encouragement and suggestion as you sit down to award the cream of the crop as you see it.  The glut of the film awards season can fade into a numbing hum, so you’d perhaps rather ignore for a bit, so come back to these words at a later date if you must.  They merely represent the humble opinion of one passionate film lover who believes in the potential of your organization and the ideals it stands for.

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  • ACE nominees

    Sharlto Copley in District 9For me, “District 9” is the biggest and most pleasant surprise for me in this morning’s American Cinema Editors announcement.  If ever the film looked like a lock for a Best Picture nomination, now is that time, I have to say.  Getting in over presumed Oscar frontrunners “Precious” and, most especially, “Inglourious Basterds,” that’s a pretty big feather in its cap if you ask me.

    “Star Trek” also makes another fairly strong case this morning for getting into the Academy’s 10 over something like “Invictus,” which keeps missing with guild after guild and should, perhaps, finally be called a spade.  The drama field is then rounded out by what has become the rather definitive frontrunner trilogy of films.

    In the comedy field, we get veterans in Joe Hutshing and Richard Marks perhaps predictably recognized for “Its Complicated” and “Julie & Julia” respectively, while the Coen brothers get their third nomination from the guild to date.  The other two: Best Picture nominees “Fargo” and “No Country for Old Men.” Round it out with two comedies that are tricking people into thinking they’ll be Best Picture nominees (with no mention of the dead and dying “Nine”) and voila, the ACE Eddie nominees.

    Check out the full list after the jump.

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  • ‘Avatar,’ ‘Star Trek’ among WGA nominees

    Michelle Rodriguez in AvatarAnd, there we are. “Avatar” gets a nomination for best writing from a 10,000 member-strong guild and plenty will find reason to argue with it. But let’s look at the rest.

    “The Hangover” managed to get a nomination in the original screenplay field in the wake of a number of eligibility rulings on some top contenders. I’m most excited for Scott Cooper and “Crazy Heart,” because I’m getting the feeling he might turn this and his USC Scripter bid into something tangible for Oscar consideration. “District 9,” of course, was not eligible here and is still a threat, ditto “An Education,” but the race is a little more interesting now.  Especially when you consider Nora Ephron (also nominated today), who I’ve always felt was a threat with the Academy for navigating two sources and making some entertaining sense of it all.

    Elsewhere it’s the usual suspects, except for the appearance of “Star Trek” in the adapted ranks.  Yes, the writers of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” are WGA nominees.  But in my view, they deserve the pat on the back for this film, a high octane entertainment that was smartly conceived and remains one of the true gems of 2009.

    Check out the nominees after the jump.

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  • ASC on the way

    Daniel Day-Lewis in NineAlong with the WGA, the American Society of Cinematographers will also be announcing nominees Monday.  Guesses as to which way they’ll go?

    I’d say the safest bet is Robert Richardson and his work on “Inglourious Basterds.” He often gets his due from the guild (eight nominations) even when he doesn’t from the Academy (five nominations).

    After that, it’s likely Barry Ackroyd, the most lauded of the season’s lensers in the critics awards circuit, will be chalked up for “The Hurt Locker.” But I think I have to come clean on something here.

    Due respect to Mr. Ackroyd, who is a considerable talent, his work on the film totally took me out of the narrative.  The slavish devotion to dizzying handheld work lacked the focus of the characters being depicted while attempting to somehow simulate the tension of their profession, and that, I think, was a misstep.

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