In Contention

Author: Guy Lodge

  • Take that, Oscar: Grammy nominates ‘Dark Knight’ duo

    The Academy’s petty disqualification of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s score for “The Dark Knight” from Oscar contention has already caused much gnashing of teeth on these pages, so here’s something to compound the embarrassment.

    It seems the Grammy voters are rather less fussy. Zimmer and Howard’s work was nominated yesterday in the category of (deep breath now) Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media. (Still with me? Good.)

    And hey, look who joins them on the list: none other than Jonny Greenwood for “There Will Be Blood,” who of course won last year’s Oscar because the work was simply too groundbreaking to be ignored. Oh right, except he didn’t, because he was disqualified. Sensing a pattern here?

    We shouldn’t be surprised by now that a voting body unrelated to the field of film should exhibit more common sense than AMPAS’ music blue-hairs, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

    Joining Greenwood, Zimmer and Howard on the list are three more 2008 contenders, Thomas Newman for “WALL-E,” Ramin Djawadi (surprise!) for “Iron Man” and John Williams (yawn) for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

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  • Sundance competition lineup revealed

    For those who really want to get an early start in the awards-guessing game, the lineups of films competing for honours at next month’s 25th annual Sundance Film Festival has been announced. As usual, the competition is split into four sections — US dramatic, US documentary, world dramatic, world documentary — with 16 films competing in each.

    Looking down the list of films, it’s pretty much impossible to anticipate hits or highlights based on name recognition alone. After all, the whole point of Sundance is for unexpected successes to emerge out of nowhere. This time last year, who could have predicted that a miniscule, star-free picture called “Frozen River” would be making waves on the awards circuit following a win at Sundance? Nobody. That’s the beauty.

    With that in mind, I’ve selected one film from each section that piques my interest — either I’ve been following its progression for some time, or I simply like the pitch and/or people involved.

    AN EDUCATION (World Dramatic) I’ve been intrigued by this one for a while, partly because it’s written by Nick Hornby, and partly because it stars the incandescent young Carey Mulligan, who blew me away as Nina in last year’s Royal Court production of “The Seagull” (now on Broadway). I predicted then and there she’d be a star, so I’m interested to see if this demonstrates her potential. She plays a smart teenager in 1960’s London who falls under the spell of a debonair older man. Peter Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson and Sally Hawkins are also in the impressive cast, while Lone Scherfig, best known for “Italian for Beginners” (an unusually cuddly work from the Dogme sect), directs. I’m in.

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  • ‘Frozen River’ continues its run at Gothams

    “Frozen River” is really turning into one of the surprise packages of this admittedly young awards season. Just yesterday it had a superb showing in yesterday’s Independent Spirit nominations, where it beat the more hotly fancied likes of “The Visitor” to a Best Picture nomination, only two days after landing an unexpected nod in the top category at the Golden Satellite Awards (fending off even heavier opposition, principally “Benjamin Button”).

    Now its dream week continues after taking the Best Feature award at last night’s Gotham Awards, as well as a Best Breakthrough Actor gong for Melissa Leo. Not bad going for a film that was only being talked of in Best Actress circles a few months ago.

    If it continues to emerge as this year’s indie Cinderella story, I’ll be interested to see what notice the Academy takes of it. I sense a Best Original Screenplay nod for Courtney Hunt is a genuine possibility considering the dearth of heavyweights in that field. At the very least, however, the more momentum the film gains, the more I like Leo’s chances of a well-deserved Best Actress nod.

    Moving on to the rest of last night’s awards, I’m glad to see that “Synecdoche, New York” jointly triumphed in the Best Ensemble category, tying with “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” — with a scattering of Spirit noms too, at least Charlie Kaufman’s widely misunderstood masterpiece isn’t getting completely shafted this awards season.

    Meanwhile, Lance Hammer unsurprisingly took the Best Breakthrough Filmmaker award for critics’ darling “Ballast,” while sentimental favou Sitrite “Trouble the Water” emerged victorious in the Best Documentary category.

    The cutely named Best Film Not Playing At A Theatre Near You citation went to “Sita Sings the Blues,” while Penelope Cruz, Gus Van Sant, Melvin Van Peebles and documentary vet Sheila Nevins tooks home tribute awards.

  • Globes rule ‘Rachel,’ ‘W.’ are dramas

    For those of you puzzling over whether certain titles will fall into the drama or musical/comedy categories at the Golden Globes, Tom O’Neil has a handy list to clarify matters.

    Most significantly, “W.” has not been accepted by the HFPA as a comedy, despite the film being submitted as one. This isn’t exactly new information — Dave Karger confirmed the film’s status a couple of weeks ago — but I know some were confused since the film was nominated in the comedic fields at the Golden Satellite Awards. It’s the right call, in my opinion: witty as the film was in some isolated instances, it wasn’t remotely a comedy.

    “Rachel Getting Married” will compete in the dramatic fields, too — again the correct classification, I think. Anne Hathaway will now have to face feisty competition even to get nominated in the Best Actress in a Drama race. Meanwhile, bar an upset by Meryl Streep, Sally Hawkins looks to have a clear run to victory in the comedy/musical category for “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

    Looking down the list of films eligible for comedy/musical consideration, it becomes difficult to spot the potential winners between the gruesome parade of dross such as “Disaster Movie,” “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” and “The Love Guru.” (Seriously, why do they bother entering?) At a guess, I’d say it’ll come down to “Burn After Reading,” “Cadillac Records,” “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” with Woody Allen looking a good bet to claim his first Best Picture gong in a couple of decades.

    Suffice to say this category doesn’t look likely to have much impact on Oscar’s Best Picture slate this year.

  • With love from me to you

    I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed Variety’s recent series of articles in which prominent actors champion some of their personal favourite performances of 2008, including many of the most discussed contenders of the season. It’s a simple idea, but executed with real thought and sincerity.

    The pieces are interesting not just because of the more empathetic perspective a fellow actor can offer on a colleague’s craft, but also because the selections and combinations are so varied and frequently unexpected.

    It’s not exactly surprising that an indie queen like Catherine Keener should love Michelle Williams’ exquisite portrayal in “Wendy and Lucy,” but Andy Garcia isn’t the first person I’d think of to celebrate the work of yesterday’s interviewee, Elsa Zylberstein, in “I’ve Loved You So Long.” I particularly liked Garcia’s piece because he understands just what a collaborative effort a performance can sometimes be:

    It is not about the big scenes. It’s about the whole personality and how it is orchestrated. Kristin Scott Thomas is the protagonist, but Kristin’s and Elsa’s performances are joined at the hip. On the page, Elsa’s subtext may not appear as dramatic an issue as the subtext Kristin has, but there’s a great delicacy with which Elsa invites us to understand her character’s troubles and insecurities and how they relate to Kristin’s character. It is the overall crafting of the performance that is so beautiful to watch.

    In turn, Kristin Scott Thomas is profiled by Scarlett Johansson, the younger actor evidently inspired by the elder. Reversing the generation gap, Dustin Hoffman is awestruck by Melissa Leo’s fearless turn in “Frozen River.” Meanwhile, James McAvoy’s take on Anne Hathaway shows the same respect and affection for a contemporary as Blythe Danner’s valentine to Richard Jenkins.

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  • INTERVIEW: Elsa Zylberstein

    Elsa ZylbersteinThough still in her 30s, Elsa Zylberstein’s career has been so rich and multi-stranded — in addition to two decades of screen performances, she has also worn the hats of a classical dancer and a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador in the past — that it’s odd to think she is only now achieving Stateside recognition for a role in one very modest film.

    Or it would be, at least, were that film not “I’ve Loved You So Long,” Philippe Claudel’s searing, critically acclaimed study of lives undone by grief and separation.  The film has quietly emerged as one of the most memorable entries in another banner year for French cinema. You have no doubt heard the well-deserved buzz for star Kristin Scott Thomas, but she’s not the film’s only name generating whispers in awards circles.

    As Thomas’ onscreen sister, a seemingly grounded wife and mother whose carefully organized sense of self begins to collapse as she is confronted directly with her past, Zylberstein’s delicate, empathetic portrayal is a dark horse to watch in the Best Supporting Actress race. The term “supporting,” however, isn’t entirely accurate.  Not unlike the season’s other highly-praised story of sisterly reunion, “Rachel Getting Married,” the film sees two sterling actresses supporting each other, each playing impeccably off the other’s gestures and silences.

    For Zylberstein, it marks the clear high point of an already-fascinating career, and she doesn’t mind admitting that she’s been taken happily off-guard by the response to the film.

    “It’s just exploded,” she enthuses down the phone line, in her limber, beguilingly accented English. “Nothing like this was meant to happen, was it? I mean, it’s just this tiny little film. And now… bang! I’ve just been in London, and I’m now I’m going to L.A. tomorrow, and people there know the film. And they know me in it. I’m just, like, what?”

    She laughs, as do I: her giddiness is infectious. I’ve caught her at her Paris home, relaxing for a few moments just before she heads off to her father’s birthday party.  (“I got him an iPhone.  You do think that’s a good idea, right?” she sidetracks, as if I was one of her oldest friends.)

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  • S&S names ‘Hunger’ best of 2008

    Sight & Sound’s annual Top Ten is, for my money, one of the most intelligent and respectable of all critics’ lists, and this year’s is no exception. Revealed in the magazine’s just-out January 2009 issue, the list is drawn from a poll of 50 international critics, including such heavyweights as Kenneth Turan, Amy Taubin, Armond White and Peter Bradshaw, and the results (for me, at least) are hard to argue with.

    The list rather bluntly highlights the less-than-stellar year American cinema has had, with only one 2008 U.S. picture (“WALL-E”) making the cut. (The inclusion of “There Will Be Blood” stems from UK release date differences, which might also account for the low profile of some current year-end contenders.) But it’s a rich and exciting collection of films, however you look at it:

    1. “Hunger” (Steve McQueen)
    2. “There Will Be Blood” (Paul Thomas Anderson)
    3. “WALL-E” (Andrew Stanton)
    4. “Gomorrah” (Matteo Garrone)
    =5. “A Christmas Tale” (Arnaud Desplechin)
    =5. “The Class” (Laurent Cantet)
    7. “Of Time and the City” (Terence Davies)
    8. “Happy-Go-Lucky” (Mike Leigh)
    =9. “The Headless Woman” (Lucrecia Martel)
    =9. “Let the Right One In” (Tomas Alfredson)

    I can’t tell you how much happier I would be if the eventual Best Picture nominees were drawn from that lot. We can but dream.

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  • Baffling Golden Satellite noms unveiled

    Golden Sattelite AwardsI’ve never been sure what purpose the Golden Satellite Awards serve. People are only dimly aware when they take place, nobody cares who wins — least of all the winners — and they manage to be irrelevant both as serious film awards and as Oscar bellwethers.

    Nevertheless, they roll around every year, and they’ve just announced their nominations for 2008. It’s a typically eccentric list, with nominees in several categories seemingly drawn from a hat. Some people might read something into the fact that “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is missing from the top categories — though I commend them for the quirky inclusion of “Frozen River” in the Best Picture lineup — but these awards truly mean nothing. The list below makes for entertaining (and occasionally amusing) reading, but nothing more.

    For a good indication of the Satellites’ level of credibility, check out their bizarre nominees in the Best Original Screenplay category, which include not one, but two adaptations. Most hilariously, one of them is Philip Roth, nominated as the sole writer of “Elegy.” I’m sure Roth is surprised for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he didn’t write the screenplay. What the fuck?

    Best Motion Picture, Drama

    “The Reader”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “Revolutionary Road”
    “Frost/Nixon”
    “Milk”
    “Frozen River”

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  • ‘Slumdog’ scores at BIFA Awards

    Thanks to bright-eyed, bushy-tailed commenter Silrone for pointing out that the winners of the British Independent Film Awards were announced while I was mired in technical problems.

    “Slumdog Millionaire” emerged as the evening’s big winner, taking Best British Film, Best Director and Best Newcomer for Dev Patel, though “Hunger” ran it close, also taking three prizes, including Best Actor for Michael Fassbender. I’m simultaneously surprised and unsurprised: “Slumdog” was certainly the obvious frontrunner, but the BIFAs have a history of not following the script.

    Such was the case in the Best Actress category, where “Happy-Go-Lucky”‘s seemingly unbeatable Sally Hawkins lost out to Vera Farmiga for “The Boy in Striped Pyjamas.” I’m disappointed for Hawkins, though she will have other opportunities this season. In any case, I’m quite pleased to see some credit for Farmiga, my admiration for whom I recently expressed on these pages.

    Meanwhile, “Happy-Go-Lucky” was rewarded with well-deserved victories for supporting stars Eddie Marsan and Alexis Zegerman, while my fellow “In Bruges” fans will be pleased to see Martin McDonagh took home some hardware for his writing.

    Incidentally, I scored 7/13 in my predictions. Poor form — hopefully it’s all up from here. Full list of winners below the cut.

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  • Technical problems… please stand by

    UPDATED: Seems we’ve solved it. Something went technically awry with the last post … I blame the Golden Satellite Awards, personally. Anyway, we’ll get that information back up for you shortly.

    EARLIER: No, your computer isn’t playing tricks on you. Something weird has happened to the formatting on the site — we’re looking into it.

  • ‘Reader’ draws praise, but is it too remote for Oscar?

    After a couple of days in post-screening limbo, the reviews for “The Reader” are in, and while there’s much praise for the film, I suspect the response may not be quite what Harvey Weinstein was hoping for.

    The general impression appears to be that it’s intelligent, well-crafted and delicately performed, but as Kris anticipated recently, there are concerns that it may prove too distant and cerebral for many audiences … including the Oscar voters. Jeff Wells is one prognosticator striking the film from his list of Best Picture ponies: “Sorry but that’s the verdict I’m hearing. Intelligent, well written, handsomely shot, doesn’t deliver emotionally.”

    That “verdict” is echoed almost exactly in Variety’s coolly respectable review:

    Stephen Daldry’s film is sensitively realized and dramatically absorbing, but comes across as an essentially cerebral experience without gut impact. Classy package will appeal to upscale specialized auds and the bookish set but pic will have trouble crossing over to the general public Stateside.

    As for Kate Winslet, widely deemed the film’s brightest awards prospect, they are impressed by the performance, but find the character impenetrable:

    A central problem with “The Reader” as a film is that one can never look inside the character of Hanna. Her life and behavior are invariably assessed from the outside — what she represents to Michael, the way the court and history take stock of her actions — but never by her … Winslet supplies a haunting shell to this internally decimated woman, one who can perhaps momentarily escape from her shame through sex but for whom there is no past she can possibly face and no future to anticipate.

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  • BIFA Awards tonight

    Just a reminder that the British Independent Film Awards take place tonight. A full list of nominations, and discussion thereof, can be found here.

    I’ll try and deliver the results as soon as they are available, but for now, I’ve ventured some predictions after the cut.

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  • 11/30 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Nathaniel Rogers muses on the Best Supporting Actor contest. [Film Experience]

    • Tom O’Neil ventures a tenuous (to me, at least) theory about gay roles and the Oscars. [Gold Derby]

    • Despite his fandom, Jeff Wells has some reservations about “Slumdog Millionaire.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • A study of Hollywood’s ongoing fascination with the Holocaust. [The Independent]

    • Ron Howard on filming Nixon… and voting for him. [New York Post]

    • Gongs for “Frozen River” and “Hunger” in Stockholm. [Screen Daily]

    • A profile of Jon Hamm. Before you say that’s not film-related, he’s totally going to be a movie star. [The Times]

  • NYT gets down with ‘The Wrestler’

    The New York Times has been a veritable piñata of goodies these past few days. In addition to the return of the Carpetbagger, they are treating us with a double-shot of “Wrestler”-related interviews, one with relative newbie screenwriter Robert D. Siegel, and of course, a massive profile of man-of-the-hour Mickey Rourke.

    I’m not sure what it is about Rourke, but he clearly brings out the best in journalists. His interview with Kris was, I think, one of the most inspired to have graced these pages, and this vast NYT piece follows suit. With none of the affectations that often come with overly PR-directed interviews, he exhibits the kind of open, candid sense of self that can only come with having got both the sweet and the fuzzy ends of the lollipop in his career; he’s one of the few movie stars around today who not only has interesting stories to tell, but is actually willing and able to tell them.

    As usual, this one’s full of nice incidental tidbits, whether he’s admitting that “Harley Davidson and the Motorcycle Man” is the only film he regrets making (really? So “Wild Orchid” was okay, then?), or offering sage advice on dog-parenting. (On being told that peanut butter and bacon isn’t really a suitable diet for his beloved pug Loki, he shoots, “She’s sixteen years old … she can have whatever she wants.”)

    But the meat of the interview comes when he confronts his own career collapse, rationalising it in a surprisingly lucid and moving way:

    I resented all the money and what came with it, the way people treated me in a special way. I didn’t know how to play the game. Nobody told me it was a business. I thought my acting talent transcended the business of films. I never had a game plan for my career. I didn’t have the tools for that. If I would have been educated enough, I might have avoided a lot of pain. So I became arrogant and self-destructive. I fought everyone ’cause I thought that was a kind of strength, but it became my weakness.

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  • All hail the Bagger

    As anyone who follows the ever-growing, ever-working and ever-sniping world of Oscar blogging knows, no one does it with more wit, insight or eloquence than the New York Times’ David Carr — or, as he chooses to be known for the next couple of insane months, The Carpetbagger.

    Unlike the witless Harold Robbins novel for which he is named, however, The Carpetbagger has serious smarts. A seasoned media journalist and author (check out his superb memoir, “The Night of the Gun,” if you haven’t already), he treats film awards season as the intricate political labyrinth that it is, but with a fine, ever-present sense of irony. Okay, I’m gushing, but he’s special.

    So it’s a thrill to see him make his entrance on the 2008 derby — at the sensible starting point of late November, unlike us year-round lunatics — with an extensive introductory column, and a brand-new logo:

    The column is a great catch-up session for those just tuning into the race now, laying out most of the big contenders and their occasionally bumpy journeys thus far. A lot of it is familiar territory to regular awards-watchers — Weinstein vs. Rudin on “The Reader,” the Cinderella story of “Slumdog Millionaire,” Kate Winslet’s two-pronged awards attack — but it’s economically assembled, with admirable attention to detail. (Did you know that Winslet has size 11 feet? Before reading this, I didn’t.)

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  • Thanks for waiting

    Sorry for ducking out yesterday — it was a Saturday of multiple distractions. Normal service to resume shortly.

    In the meantime, for your listening pleasure, here’s “O… Saya,” the sensational A.R. Rahman/M.I.A. cut from the “Slumdog Millionaire” soundtrack. It won’t get anywhere near Oscar night, of course — though I’m brazenly predicting that the film’s exuberant Bollywood-inspired closer, “Jai Ho,” will not only be nominated for Best Original Song, but will win.

    Still, close your eyes, listen to this and imagine M.I.A. on the Kodak stage instead of, say, Miley Cyrus or  whatever drek they choose to nominate instead.

  • 11/29 Oscarweb Round-up

    Slim pickings today, but then what did you expect? Think of this as your leftover turkey sandwich.

    • The estimable Michael Wilmington goes to bat for “Australia” in a big way. [Movie City News]

    • Meryl Streep discusses her “career renaissance.” Uh, when did her career ever fade? [Los Angeles Times]

    • Simon Hattenstone talks to Benicio Del Toro, concludes he’s “Hollywood’s finest mumbler since Brando.” [The Guardian]

    • Here’s a refreshingly un-PC list: the top 10 movies (and TV series) that made us want to smoke. [Premiere]

    • Jeff Wells looks into the mysterious disappearance of Sean Penn from Wayne Kramer’s “Crossing Over.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • David Poland chats to two extraordinary ladies: Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott Thomas. Our interview with the latter will appear next week, by the way. [The Hot Blog]

    • John Campea digs into that old chestnut — the iffy movie careers of the “Friends” cast — but curiously fails to mention “The Opposite of Sex” or “The Good Girl.” C’mon, credit where it’s due. [The Movie Blog]

    • Well, at least “In Bruges” has won something. [Irish Times]

  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Button,’ ‘Reader’ screen… uncertainty reigns

    • After a false start, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” was finally unveiled, to considerable applause… but is it too chilly?

    • Maybe. In his gutsy early predictions, Kris names “Slumdog Millionaire” the one to beat.

    • InContention readers, however, are less sure.

    • In a week of revelations, “The Reader” also screened — but the response on these pages was ambivalent.

    • Not everyone agrees, however. Which has us asking where this leaves Kate Winslet’s Oscar chances.

    • Amid the confusion, this week’s Off the Carpet column drew the conclusion that 2008 simply isn’t a vintage year.

    • Onto surer things, we wondered whether Heath Ledger is the inevitable winner of this year’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Your answer? A resounding yes.

    • Mapping out some alternative possibilities in the Best Documentary Feature race.

    • An interview with with “Changeling” scribe J. Michael Straczynski.

    • Just in case you hadn’t heard the name “Benjamin Button” enough this week, we were treated to the film’s score.

    • On the other side of the pond, meanwhile, “Mamma Mia!” continues to break records. Does BAFTA beckon?