In Contention

Author: Guy Lodge

  • THE LONG SHOT: Post early for Christmas

    Jeremy Renner in The Hurt LockerLondon is in the midst of a postal strike. No mail, be it far-flung postcard or electricity bill, has popped through my front door for over a month. I recently had to stroll into Soho to pick up my London Film Festival accreditation pack by hand. And rather discouragingly, my local post office today put a hastily scrawled sign in the window: “Post NOW for delivery by Christmas.”

    If you’re wondering why I’ve started this week’s column with this fascinating tidbit from my domestic life – apart from the fact that, as Kris noted, the crickets are chirping in awardsville this week – it’s because, as I stared disbelievingly at the sign, it occurred to me that a similar memo should be sent to several specialty studios hoping for a stake in this awards season. (Yes, my mind works in curious ways.)

    In short: you have a little package that needs to deliver in time for Oscar consideration? Don’t wait until December. Send it out now.

    This may seem like crazy advice given Oscar voters’ ever-growing love affair with winter releases. Just last year, no pre-November release made the Best Picture cut. And Harvey Weinstein has proved time and again that substantial rewards can be reaped if you spring a film upon the Academy without giving them too much time to think about it – from “The Cider House Rules” to “Chocolat” to “The Reader,” he knows which films won’t survive a few months of critical and industry scrutiny.

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  • London Film Festival shortlists nine titles for top prize

    Fantastic Mr. Fox I mentioned recently that the London Film Festival is upping its profile by adding a couple of new awards to its roster, including a crowning Best Film prize. This, I felt, was a positive development for a festival that becomes a richer, more rewarding cinematic showcase by the year. However, I must admit to being disappointed by the conservative approach they’ve taken to their new premier prize.

    Festival director Sandra Hebron yesterday unveiled a shortlist of nine contenders for the inaugural Best Film award, and a mostly familiar bunch of titles it is:

    “Balibo” (Robert Connolly)
    “Bright Star”     (Jane Campion)
    “Fantastic Mr. Fox”     (Wes Anderson)
    “Micmacs”     (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
    “Nowhere Boy”     (Sam Taylor-Wood)
    “A Prophet”     (Jacques Audiard)
    “The Road”     (John Hillcoat)
    “A Serious Man”     (Joel and Ethan Coen)
    “The White Ribbon”     (Michael Haneke)

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  • Foreign watch: UK enters ‘Afghan Star,’ ‘Reykjavik’ remake

    Afghan StarTwo interesting news tidbits relating to the Best Foreign Language Film race surfaced yesterday, the first of which is the United Kingdom’s bold, wholly unexpected decision to submit Havana Marking’s acclaimed documentary “Afghan Star” as their entry.

    The news is surprising for a number of reasons. It’s the first time the UK has submitted a documentary in the race — perhaps the selectors were inspired by the groundbreaking nomination of “Waltz With Bashir” in the category earlier this year.

    Moreover, the Afghanistan-centered film — which contains dialogue in English, Dari and Pashtun — marks a dramatic change from the Welsh-language features that BAFTA almost always puts forward for Oscar consideration. (Few people give the Brits much thought in this category, but they’ve actually been nominated twice before: for “Hedd Wyn” in 1993 and “Solomon and Gaenor” in 1999.)

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  • THE LISTS: Top 10 actors under 30

    Abbie Cornish in CandyI wrote recently about how this year’s Best Actress race seems to ushering in a striking new wave of young talent, from the elfin throwback charm of Carey Mulligan to the rawer screen presence of Gabourey Sidibe, while a range of youthful names, from the long-hyped Abbie Cornish to the out-of-nowhere Katie Jarvis, have been racking up critical plaudits all year.

    Whether Academy voters comply or not, it’s hard to disagree that it’s a good year to be a fresh face.

    Meanwhile, the industry’s male twentysomethings may have enjoyed less frenzied acclaim than their fairer counterparts, but the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Whishaw and – yes – Shia LaBeouf have kept things ticking over for the generation quite respectably.

    So, with the teen-driven narratives of “An Education” and “Precious” heading for theaters soon, and with the youth romance of “Bright Star” currently pleasing older arthouse audiences, it seemed an apt moment to celebrate the new guard by ranking the finest talent that the born-after-1980 generation has to offer.

    And believe me when I tell you it was one of the trickiest lists I’ve ever compiled on this site. The more I contemplated recent successes and breakthroughs, the longer the shortlist of candidates grew, spanning Academy-endorsed names already on the A-list (Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal) to quirkier talents from the indie and foreign sectors (Sam Riley, Emilie Dequenne). I like to think that the fact that I struggled as much as I did to narrow the list down to 10 names bodes very well for the future.

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  • Who the hell was that?

    Meryl Streep in Julie & JuliaCoincidentally enough, the same day that Kris spotlighted the Best Actress race, the category has been on my mind too — as a thought hit me that could factor in what is potentially one of the tightest duels of the season.

    Almost every Oscar prognosticator on record has already boiled the Best Actress contest down to Carey Mulligan versus Meryl Streep, and until the precursors arrive to shed some light on the matter, there’s almost nothing in it on paper.

    Advantage Mulligan for being in a probable Best Picture nominee. Advantage Streep for playing a prominent real-life figure. Advantage Mulligan for being this year’s hottest ingenue. Advantage Streep for being, well, Meryl Streep. And on it goes, back and forth.

    But if there’s one area where Mulligan holds a clear advantage over Streep, it’s with the so-called “BAFTA block” … the British contingent of voters who seemingly make their presence felt more in the Academy voting by the year. (Recent BAFTA-led surges for “The Reader,” Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton are a case in point.)

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  • Foreign film race slowly taking shape

    The White RibbonAs I said before, the October 1 “deadline” for Best Foreign Language Film submissions isn’t quite as rigid as it sounds: assorted additions and alterations tend to be made before the Academy officially announces the list.

    The first of these late developments comes from Colombia, with the late submission of Ciro Guerra’s “The Wind Journeys,” which bowed at Cannes and recently played at Toronto. A tale of an elderly accordion player travelling the country with the young musician he’s mentoring, it apparently combines gentle sentiment, generational themes with picturesque landscapes. Lots for the Academy to like there, perhaps.

    With the unveiling of a semi-solid list of contenders, you’ll notice that Kris has committed to some predictions in the category. Meanwhile, I’ve updated mine here. A stab in the dark really, particularly without having seen the vast majority of the films, though there is a level of reasoning here and there.

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  • Carey Mulligan: “I was always jealous of the ingenues”

    This NYT chat with “An Education” star Carey Mulligan is weeks old, but for some reason I hadn’t seen it before. I love the conversational looseness of these Screen Test videos: topics on the menu include the demise of the one-liner, dressing as a hooker for “Public Enemies,” and her earliest movie memory of “The Land Before Time.” (Jeez, I’m old.)

    All the while, her quest to be the most adorable person on the planet is chugging along nicely. As for that voice … well, I’m not going to get tired of hearing her speak this awards season. (Just as well, really, since we’ll be hearing her a lot.)

  • What exactly is the gay/Jewish ‘Precious?’

    PreciousDavid Poland has written his first Oscar column of the season, and while it’s a typically interesting read, it features several eyebrow-raising statements that I really can’t square with.

    I’ll leave you to pick through its eccentricities — that he seemingly doesn’t believe Christoph Waltz is a contender, for example — for yourselves. (Sasha Stone has written an extensive riposte.) But there’s a pair of head-scratching (to me, at least) tags in his Best Picture chart that I feel like highlighting:

    “A Serious Man”: It’s the Jewish “Precious” … but funny!

    “A Single Man”: It’s the Gay “Precious” … but pretty!

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  • ‘Ponyo’ saves the world

    PonyoOkay, not quite the world, but a very small part of it. The small, picturesque Japanese fishing port that inspired the setting for Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo” has been spared a drastic redevelopment (a landfill and bridge were on the cards, apparently) thanks to the film itself. Variety reports:

    Miyazaki conceived the idea for “Ponyo,” which earned $170 million at the Japanese B.O. last year, in a two-month stay at Tomonoura port and his animators used it as a setting for the toon. It has since become a mecca for “Ponyo” fans, boosting revenues of local businesses.

    The International Council on Monuments and Sites has named Tomonoura as an endangered historical area because of the project.

    I have yet to see “Ponyo” for myself (thanks, sleepy Brit distributors), so I can’t speak to its other virtues, but any film that keeps the world prettier is okay in my book.

  • Nick Hornby on writing ‘An Education’

    Nick HornbyAmid the swirl of hype for “An Education” that’s been building for eight months now, there’s been surprisingly little mention of the man who is easily the biggest name involved with the film: superstar novelist Nick Hornby, whose free adaptation of Lynn Barber’s memoir looks certain to land him in the Best Adapted Screenplay pack.

    The film is only Hornby’s second successful stab at writing for film, 12 years after he adapted his own novel “Fever Pitch” for the screen. However, as he states in this Wall Street Journal interview, the gap between screen credits wasn’t for lack of trying:

    While several of his novels have been successfully adapted into movies, including “High Fidelity” and “About a Boy,” the 52-year-old Mr. Hornby has seen most of his screenplays fizzle in development, including a collaboration with actress Emma Thompson that “we just couldn’t get right.”

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Foreign contenders and underdogs

    James McAvoy in The Last Station• The deadline for Best Foreign Language Film entries passed, as Israel and Italy bucked conventional wisdom with their selections.

    • Among the better-received contenders, however, were major festival prizewinners from Australia and Greece. A full list of submissions here.

    • As the smaller studios beef up their Oscar prospects, this week’s Off the Carpet column wondered if this could be the year of the underdog.

    • Speaking of which, Sony Pictures Classics acquired “The Last Station,” a potential awards vehicle for Helen Mirren amongst others.

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  • Century man

    Manoel de OliveiraThroughout this week, I’ve been attending advance press screenings for the upcoming London Film Festival — a handy bonus the organizers provide to give journalists some breathing room when the fest actually begins.

    I’ll get to writing up the films once festival business actually begins on the 14th, but after watching “Eccentricities of a Blonde Haired Girl,” the latest from Portuguese veteran (and I mean veteran) Manoel de Oliveira, I felt compelled to mention my sheer astonishment at the man’s achievement.

    The film itself — which went down well recently at the NYFF, if indieWIRE’s critics’ poll is any indication — is a beguiling curio, but the real story here is that de Oliveira, who made his first feature in 1942, will be 101 years old in December.

    100 years old, folks. And he’s busy working on his next feature as we speak.  That someone is out there making films at all at his age is laudable enough. That he’s making good ones is nothing short of heroic. Has any other filmmaker stayed active that long? Is this a record? Any helpful geeks out there with the numbers to hand?

  • Can Halle Berry turn it around with ‘Frankie & Alice?’

    Halle Berry in Monster's BallPoor Halle Berry has become something of a communal punchbag in recent years among critics seeking examples of the age-old post-Oscar curse; with every disappointing film she makes, the comments about her career (and even her winning performance) get progressively snarkier.

    Look no further than this rather odd (and somewhat out-of-nowhere) piece in today’s Guardian — in which Benjamin Lee makes the curious claim that it is color-blind casting (which others might see as progress of a sort) that has sunk Berry’s career following her Oscar win.

    Lee’s argument essentially boils down to this: non-white actresses are better off sticking to roles (such as Berry’s breakthrough parts in “Monster’s Ball” or the TV film “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge”) that are dependent on their race.

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  • Foreign film watch: ‘Dogtooth’ and ‘The Milk of Sorrow’

    DogtoothAmong the films squeezing in under yesterday ‘s foreign-language submission deadline were two pretty major titles, both boasting hefty festival hardware — not that that makes them strong Oscar possibilities by any means.

    As we suspected, Greece (not nominated in the category since 1977) did indeed submit Yorgos Lanthiomos’s surreal family drama “Dogtooth,” which won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes, and recently played at Toronto. The film is gradually acquiring an ardent critical following, chief champion of which is James Rocchi, who suggests it is the year’s best so far:

    “Dogtooth” speaks to Greek history, to be sure, but it also works as a universal fable about the blunt mechanics — and bizarre appeal — of dictatorship … “Dogtooth” is funny and then terrifying and, somehow, both at the same time. Haunting, bold and truly cinematic in its ambitions, expressions and convictions, “Dogtooth” might be the best film I’ve seen all year — and, somehow, it got even deeper and more disturbing on the second viewing.

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  • Smit-McPhee and Jenkins in ‘Let the Right One In’ remake

    Kodi Smith-McPheeWord just in from Overture Films that Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Road”), Richard Jenkins (Oscar-nominated this year for “The Visitor”) and Chloe Moretz (I profess ignorance) are to headline “Let Me In,” the forthcoming and unwelcome (in these parts, anyway) U.S. remake of last year’s arthouse sensation “Let the Right One In.”

    The presence of Jenkins adds a sheen of respectability, I suppose. (After the sterling work Overture did in securing him that unlikely Oscar nod, perhaps he owes them one.) As for McPhee, the jury’s still out: I was thoroughly unmoved by his work in “The Road,” but perhaps he has something.

    The press release, in part, after the cut.

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  • Friedman tries to get Mo’Nique backlash under way

    Mo'Nique in PreciousWell, this is unpleasant. I don’t know whether gossipmonger Roger Friedman has it in for presumed Best Supporting Actress frontrunner Mo’Nique or not, but this attack on her professional behavior in regard to publicizing “Precious” strikes me as distinctly unnecessary.

    According to Friedman, the actress has been cagey about doing press for the film, not appearing at the Cannes, Toronto or New York festival premieres of the film — apparently due other professional commitments. Friedman isn’t impressed:

    I did tell you that Mo’Nique has gotten herself a reputation for demanding money for showing up to promote “Precious.” It’s a first in Oscar history.

    Last week I spoke to one of her representatives, who said, “It’s just supporting actress. It’s not lead, is it?” What the heck! It would be nice if someone close to Mo’Nique will explain her behavior soon. Otherwise, her “cinch” Oscar is about to fade away. “Precious” will go on and be just fine without Mo’Nique.

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  • The foreign films that got away

    Penelope Cruz in Broken EmbracesWith the deadline for Best Foreign Language Film submissions upon us, indieWIRE’s Peter Knegt is taking stock of the possible injustices that already have taken place in the race … and at this early stage, the Academy isn’t even responsible. (Well, unless we count the problems of the one-film-per-country system, not to mention leaving the countries to choose their own contenders, but that’s another conversation.)

    For better or worse — it’s terribly hard to say without having seen all the films in question — several countries have surprised pundits and filmgoers alike by picking lower-profile candidates and critical and/or public favorites.

    We’ve already discussed what is probably the most ill-received submission so far, as Italy selected Giuseppe Tornatore’s critically panned period saga “Baaria” over the film most presumed was a shoo-in to represent the country, Marco Bellocchio’s Cannes-lauded Mussolini biopic “Vincere.”

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  • Campion’s ‘Peel’

    Speaking of Jane Campion, New York Magazine was recently resourceful enough to dig up the director’s breakthrough short “Peel,” which won the Palme d’Or (in the short category, of course) at Cannes in 1986. It remains, for me, one of the finest things the director’s ever done. Check it out below if you’ve never seen it.